Netherlands to unveil report on MH17 air disaster

The air crash team led by Dutch investigators from will announce its findings at 0800 GMT on the July crash of Flight MH17, but the report will not apportion any blame.

 

 

The Boeing 777 was blown out of the sky over eastern Ukraine as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, killing all on board including 193 Dutch citizens.

 

 

Kiev and the West accused pro-Russian separatists of shooting down the plane with a surface-to-air missile supplied by Moscow.

 

 

Russia, which denies mounting Western claims of direct involvement in the five-month conflict in Ukraine, has blamed government forces for the attack.

"We investigate the cause of the accident and not who's responsible," Sara Vernooij, spokewoman for the Dutch Safety Board OVV, told AFP.

 

 

The MH17 disaster was the second tragedy for Malaysia Airlines after the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 in March, and threw the global spotlight back on the bloody uprising in eastern Ukraine.

 

 

The report is being issued just days after a ceasefire backed by Kiev and Moscow came into force on Friday to try to end a war that has killed over 2,700 people and sent at least half a million fleeing their homes.  

 

 

Dutch investigators have been unable to visit the site in the Donetsk region because of the fighting, and have relied on information from Ukrainian crash specialists for information from the scene.

 

 

- Full report in 2015 -
Investigators are expected to make findings based on information from the aircraft's black boxes, and pictures and video taken at the scene, as well as information supplied by Ukranian air traffic control. -AFP

 

(File Photo: Gallo Images)