Wed, Sep 10, 2014 page1

• MH17 likely felled by outside impacts, initial report says

  JULY DISASTER: The Malaysian, Australian and Dutch prime ministers welcomed the release of the Dutch report, but said more work was needed

  • AP, THE HAGUE, Netherlands
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was likely struck by multiple “high-energy objects from outside the aircraft,” causing it to break up over eastern Ukraine, a preliminary report into the aviation disaster concluded yesterday.

  The report by the Dutch Safety Board stopped short of saying the Boeing 777 was shot down by a missile, but its findings point to that conclusion. It also did not say who might have been responsible.

  The Boeing 777 suddenly plunged out of the sky on July 17 over territory held by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.

  

  Malaysian Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai holds up a copy of a preliminary disaster report by the Dutch Safety Board on the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 during a news conference yesterday in Putrajaya, Malaysia.

  Photo: AFP

  “The damage observed in the forward section of the aircraft appears to indicate that the aircraft was penetrated by a large number of high-energy objects from outside the aircraft,” the report said. “It is likely that this damage resulted in a loss of structural integrity of the aircraft, leading to an in-flight break up.”

  The board is leading the international investigation into the cause of the disaster. Its full report is expected within a year.

  “The initial results of the investigation point toward an external cause of the MH17 crash,” board chairman Tjibbe Joustra said in a statement. “More research will be necessary to determine the cause with greater precision. The Safety Board believes that additional evidence will become available for investigation in the period ahead.”

  

  A memorial to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 at Schiphol Airport, near Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is decorated with stuffed animals and flowers yesterday.

  Photo: AFP

  Christopher Yates, an aviation safety specialist at Yates Consulting, said the report “is extremely consistent with damage from a missile for the simple reason there are penetration marks.”

  “It must have been moving at very high velocity to create the damage,” he said. “It could only be a missile of the type that would reach the altitude that would have struck the aircraft” — potentially a Buk missile.

  Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak welcomed the report, saying in a statement that its key conclusion “leads to the strong suspicion that a surface-to-air missile brought MH17 down, but further investigative work is needed before we can be certain.”

  Razak said Malaysian investigators were sent to Ukraine on Monday.

  “It is of the utmost importance that the investigation teams gain full and unfettered access to the crash site, in order to recover all human remains, complete their investigation and establish the truth,” he said. “We owe it to the families.”

  Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott also said the findings “are consistent with the government’s statement that MH17 was shot down by a large surface-to-air missile.”

  “The international community must remain focused on finding, prosecuting and punishing the perpetrators of this cowardly attack. We owe this to the innocent victims of the MH17 downing and their families,” he said.

  Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the leader of a Dutch team aiming to recover bodies and belongings was heading to Ukraine today, and other investigators were ready to return to the crash scene whenever it is safe enough for them to work.

  “There is still a long way to go,” Rutte said.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Jokic’s 55 point pays off for Nuggets

  • 2

    Thousands evacuated ahead of storm

  • 3

    Detroit Pistons win streak hits seven

  • 4

    Softbank says it has sold its shares in Nvidia, turning focus to OpenAI

  • 5

    Sea alert raised as Fung-wong moves northward