Over a year after Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 went down, killing all 298 people on board, Dutch investigators have concluded that the aircraft was downed by Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile.
Unveiling a reconstruction of the plane that showed huge shrapnel damage to the cockpit and front section, Tjibbe Joustra, the chairman of the Dutch safety board, said the Malaysia Airlines plane was hit by a 9N314M warhead on 17 July 2014, as it flew at 33,000ft (10,000 metres) above eastern Ukraine.
Painstakingly reassembled, with the damaged wreckage fitted over a steel and wire mesh frame, the mangled front section of the plane dominated the hangar at a Dutch air base where hundreds had gathered for the report's release.
The investigation has shown that flight MH17 progressed normally up to the moment when the aeroplane was flying over the eastern part of Ukraine.
At 13.20 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) a 9N314M warhead, launched by a Buk surface-to-air missile system from a 320-square-kilometre area in the eastern part of Ukraine, detonated to the left and above the cockpit.
The forward section of the aircraft was penetrated by hundreds of high-energy objects coming from the warhead.
As a result of the impact and the subsequent blast, the three crew members in the cockpit were killed immediately and the aeroplane broke up in the air.
Wreckage from the aeroplane was distributed over various sites within an area of 50 square kilometres.
All 298 occupants were killed. At a meeting with victims' families earlier on Tuesday, Joustra said it was likely that passengers who were not killed by the impact of the missile would have been rendered unconscious very quickly by the sudden decompression of the aircraft and the lack of oxygen at 33,000 feet.
The report said it was likely that the occupants "were barely able to comprehend the situation in which they found themselves". None could have survived impact with the ground, it said.
But the report goes on to add that some may have been alert during the horrific 90 second descent to the ground.
"It cannot be ruled out that some occupants remained conscious for some time during the one to one-and-a-half minutes for which the crash lasted," it said.
Russia for its part disputes that a Buk may have been used. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov responded to the report by saying there had been "an obvious attempt to draw a biased conclusion, and carry out political orders", according to Russian news agencies.
The Safety Board report said that simulations of the missile's trajectory showed it came from somewhere in an area covering some 320 kilometers southeast of Grabovo, Ukraine -- an area mostly controlled by separatists.
The makers of the Buk said their tests had shown that the aircraft could not have been hit by a missile fired from rebel-controlled territory.
Although the report did not assign blame, it is almost certain to further strain diplomatic ties between the Netherlands and its allies and Russia, Reuters reported.
(Top Image) Reconstruction seen from the front; (Above) Right hand side of MH17's cockpit
