The Dutch Safety Boards Report Will Likely Say That MH17 Was Downed by a Missile
The Dutch Safety Board is expected to release its report Tuesday on the cause of the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, more than a year after the jet was brought down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. Dutch Safety Board director Tjibbe Joustra will first present the findings to the families of the victims, then to the greater public at a Dutch military base in Gilze-Rijen, Reuters says. There were 193 Dutch nationals among the dead. The BBC adds that the board will also present reconstructed parts of the plane, which were collected at the crash site close to Donetsk, Ukraine. The board is expected to say that MH17 was brought down by a Russian Buk missile but will not place blame on any particular group, Reuters reports. Initial findings, released in September 2014, concluded that the crash was caused by "high-energy objects from outside the aircraft.", The report will also look into why the plane was flying over a conflict zone, why it took four days until some relatives had confirmation that their loved ones had died on board, and how much the crew knew about what was going on in the moments before the crash, the BBC adds. Almaz-Antey, the manufacturer of Buk missiles, will likely hold a press conference on Tuesday as well to respond to the board's report, according to Reuters. The Ukrainian government and many Western nations maintain that the crash was likely caused by a Russian missile fired by rebels. Russia denies that and blames the Ukrainian military for the crash. Russia plans to release its own report. Flight MH17 crashed in rebel-held eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, at the height of the conflict between separatist pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces. Reuters