Initial Report Points to ‘External Cause’ of Flight 17 Crash over Ukraine
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disintegrated over eastern Ukraine after it was likely hit by multiple objects "from outside the aircraft", the AP reported on Tuesday.
Citing conclusions from a preliminary report into the deadly disaster over territory held by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine that claimed the lives of all 298 passengers and crew on board Boeing 777 on July 17, the newswire said: "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."
While the report by the Dutch Safety Board says that "this damage resulted in a loss of structural integrity," leading to break-up in flight of the aircraft, it doesn't state explicitly that Flight 17 was shot down by a missile.
However, according to Christopher Yates, an aviation safety specialist at Yates Consulting, the report "is extremely consistent with damage from a missile for the simple reason there are penetration marks," AP said.
Investigators found no evidence that the crash resulted from a technical problem or crew error, said the report.
The report also doesn't indicate who might have been responsible for the accident. A full report by the Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the international investigation into the cause of the crash, is expected within a year.
According to Yates, what caused the crash could only have been a missile of the type able to reach the altitude at which the aircraft was flying when it was struck - potentially a Buk surface-to-air missile and not a shoulder-fired missile which wouldn't have reached that altitude.
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