MH17 report 2015: Victims’ final moments revealed as report finds Russian-made missile responsible
IT is the hardest finding for their families to comprehend: As MH17 crashed to the ground, some passengers may have been conscious.
A Russian-made Buk missile brought down MH17
Missile struck left side of cockpit, killing crew first
Paint traces from missile on MH17 helped confirm match
160 flights kept flying over Ukraine after MH17 was struck
PASSENGERS on board the downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 may have been conscious for 90 seconds after the plane was hit by a missile over Ukraine.
The horrific finding was made overnight by the Dutch Safety Board as it released a report into the July 17, 2014, tragedy which killed 298 people including 38 Australian citizens and residents.
The board, which assembled fragments of the jet around a specially built cage, concluded that the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur Boeing 777 was hit by a Russian-made Buk missile.
The warhead exploded just outside the cockpit on the left side, instantly killing the pilot and two other crew members as the front of the plane sheared off.
Even though the inquiry did not say who pulled the trigger, countries including Australia, Britain, France and the US accuse pro-Russian separatist rebels of the atrocity.
“We will not be bullied by anyone. We will continue to pursue justice for those aboard MH17,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told national radio.
“Russia is seeking to discredit the investigation,” she said.
“It’s had some months to get its lines right ... Russia’s protestations are not surprising, however we will not be deterred in our effort to gain justice.”
TRAGIC END: AUSTRALIANS SEATED ON MH17
Investigators had offered the victims’ families some comfort in a private briefing yesterday, telling them those on board would have died swiftly after the explosion.
But the subsequent report said the passengers and remaining crew died due to decompression, reduced oxygen, extreme cold, powerful airflow and flying objects.
It added: “It cannot be ruled out that some occupants remained conscious during the 60 to 90 seconds before the plane crashed.”
In a dramatic presentation at the Gilze Rijen military air base in the south of The Netherlands, the report was made public by the Board’s chairman Tjibbe Joustra.
Clearly visible in the re-constructed plane were multiple holes caused from the detonation of the Buk missile which he said was launched from somewhere in a 320km sq area.
“Flight MH17 crashed as a result of the detonation of a warhead outside the aeroplane against the left-hand side of the cockpit ... this warhead fits the kind of missile that is installed in the BUK surface-to-air missile system,” he said.
It found the impact caused damage to the front section of the fuselage sufficient to cause the aircraft to break up midair.
The three pilots were killed instantly. The report stated that 120 objects (mostly metal fragments) were found in the body of the First Officer, mostly in the left side of the upper torso.
More than 100 objects were found in the body of the Purser. “Hundreds” of metal fragments were found in the fragmented body of the Captain.
Critically it was revealed the passengers and crew not struck and killed directly by the fragments from the detonated missile were unconscious moments after missile impact.
But some of MH17’s passengers and other crew members may have been conscious for the one-and-a-half minutes it took the plane to crash, investigators said.
“It cannot be ruled out that some of the occupants remained conscious for some time during the one to one-and-a-half minutes for which the crash lasted,” a spokesperson said.
The immediate impact on the passengers was mixed, with most of them being unable to understand what was happening at the time the missile hit the plane.
The report stated: “The impact was entirely unexpected, which means that people were barely able to comprehend the situation in which they found themselves. There was hardly any time for a conscious response.
“The occupants were exposed to extreme factors almost immediately. Depending on variables such as the occupant’s location in the cabin at the moment of impact, the factors were not the same for all the occupants.
“A number of occupants immediately sustained severe injuries as result of the factors, probably causing death. For others, the exposure caused reduced awareness or unconsciousness within moments. It could not be ascertained at which exact moment occupants died, but it is certain that the impact on the ground was not survivable.
“It is likely that occupants were barely able to comprehend their situation. In the course of the crash, the occupants were exposed to extreme factors.
“There may have been reflexive actions such as clutching the armrests of the seat.”
No photographs or text messages were sent after the impact, suggesting they were either unconscious or unable to do anything.
The investigations team said all scenarios into the downing of the aircraft were reviewed including mechanical failure, on-board gunfire and air-to-air missiles but it was determined by the “impact pattern” and other evidence that it was a surface-to-air missile system.
The investigators also revealed the flight recorders picked up the sound of the detonation of the warhead on the cockpit.
Paint traces, found on the MH17 structure enabled investigators to identify the Buk missile and its origins.
Ex-war crimes judge: ‘Russia is telling lies’
Geoffrey Robertson, a former United Nations war crimes judge, said the Dutch Safety Board report on MH-17 is important because it refutes Russian “lies and propaganda” claiming the Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down by a Ukrainian plane, not by a missile.
But he said the families of the victims still don’t know what the next step will be in their quest for justice.
He says “the families must wait until the Dutch criminal report, which is due at Christmas or shortly afterward, which would try to identify those criminally responsible.”
He said the International Criminal Court is unlikely to be able to prosecute those responsible but that murder or manslaughter prosecutions could be brought by the countries where the victims lived, including Holland and Ukraine.
Families react to the board’s findings
Earlier, relatives emerged visibly shaken after being privately briefed by Mr Joustra in a conference centre in The Hague.
Relative Robby Oehlers said a wave of sadness had swept through the room.
“They showed us the fragments that were inside the plane,” Ms Oehlers said, adding in the room “it was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop.
“They told us there was a zero per cent chance that the people inside felt anything or had any notion of what was happening.”
Claudio Villaca-Vanetta, whose husband Glenn Thomas, died on board MH17, told PA: “Even if it was the estimated nine seconds for somebody to lose consciousness, it is still a lot of time. For most families of victims, including myself, we went through counselling and this was maybe the hardest point to accept - the cruelty and the violence on bodies.
“Of course, this doesn’t tell us who did it, who is accountable for it. That is where we want to get now.”
Russia slams Dutch report: ‘We have doubts’
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says servicemen working under Russia’s security services shot down the MH17 airliner over rebel territory in eastern Ukraine last year.
“I personally have no doubt that this was a planned operation of the Russian special services aimed at downing a civilian aircraft,” Yatsenyuk told a televised cabinet meeting on Tuesday .
The missile systems could only have been operated by “trained Russian servicemen,” he added.
But the Russian foreign ministry reeled off a litany of perceived problems with the Dutch-led investigation, saying the work on it should continue.
“There remain serious doubts whether the genuine goal of an investigation conducted in the Netherlands is the establishment of true reasons behind the catastrophe and not a justification of accusations that have been put forward in advance,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
And a Russian state-controlled missile maker said its investigation of the crash contradicts the Dutch probe.
Almaz-Antey’s two experiments — one of which saw a Buk missile detonated near the nose of an aeroplane similar to a 777 — found a much different submunitions damage pattern than seen on the remnants of MH17, the company said in a statement.
Almaz-Antey in June had said that a preliminary investigation suggested that the plane was downed by a model of Buk that is no longer in service with the Russian military but that was part of the Ukrainian military arsenal.
Information from the first experiment, in which a missile was fired at aluminium sheets mimicking an airliner’s fuselage, was presented to the Dutch investigators, but was not taken into account, Almaz-Antey chief Yan Novikov said at a news conference.
Novikov said evidence shows that if the plane was hit by a Buk, it was fired from the village of Zaroshenske, which Russia says was under Ukrainian government control at the time.
Why are airlines flying over conflict zones?
Mr Joustra — who used video animations to demonstrate the report’s findings — said the airspace over Ukraine should have been closed at the time but no-one appreciated at that time the dangers involved with flying over the conflict zone of eastern Ukraine.
He said 160 flights continued to fly over the area after MH17 had been shot down with air authorities and airliners wrongly believing it was safe for commercial airlines to fly at cruising altitude over the area.
Mr Joustra made clear it was not the responsibility of the investigators to apportion blame. Instead, a criminal report being conducted by a multinational police team would make their findings on that later this year or early next year.
Australian aviation lawyer Joseph Wheeler said it was clear from the final MH17 report that countries and operators must do more to recognise the risks of conflict zones to civilian aircraft and safeguard passengers.
“It is clear from the report that individual airline risk assessments are no longer considered sufficient to safeguard civil aviation from the risks of armed conflict on the ground in modern times,” said Mr Wheeler, from Maurice Blackburn lawyers.
Malaysia Airlines responds to the report
In a statement, Malaysia Airlines thanked the Dutch Safety Board for its exhaustive and detailed report.
“MAS is grateful for the support from the Dutch Government in dealing with all aspects of the tragedy and leading the technical investigation,” said the statement.
“MAS has worked very closely with the Dutch authorities and given full cooperation to the investigative team.
“We welcome the publication of the report and hope it will give clarity to the affected families of the tragic incident.”
The airline also assured next of kins it would continue to cooperate with authorities on all matters pertaining to the loss of MH17 and would support families until all issues were completed.
Report slams Russia’s actions after tragedy
Meanwhile, the report suggests Russia had no justification in failing to produce radar data about the stricken flight.
“The Russian Federation did not provide the radar data stating that no radar data was saved, but instead provided the radar screen video replay, which showed combined surveillance primary and secondary radar. In the absence of the underlying radar data (so-called raw data), the video information could not be verified,” the report said.
Further to this, it noted “states are required to automatically record data from primary and secondary surveillance radar equipment systems for use in accident and incident investigations, search and rescue, and air traffic control and surveillance systems evaluation and training. These recordings shall be retained for a period of at least 30 days, and from accident and incident investigation for a longer period until it is evident that the recordings will no longer be required.”
The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency told the Dutch board that it didn’t save radar data because the incident happened outside Russian territory.
The Dutch board said that Russia’s own official procedure “does not mention an exception to the requirement to store radar data when that data relates to an area outside the Russian Federation territory.”
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