Dutch Safety Board to Publish Final Report on MH17 Disaster

People carry a stretcher with a bodybag past the debris of a Boeing 777 Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 airplane, which crashed during flying over the eastern Ukraine region, at the crash site near Donetsk, Ukraine, 19 July 2014. Photo: EPA

The Dutch Safety Board, which is investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), will publish its final report of the air disaster on Tuesday.

The airplane was conducting a flight between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in the sky above eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014.

The subsequent crash resulted in the death of all 298 people on board - 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

The results of the investigation will be first communicated to the relatives of the victims and after that will be presented to the media and made public.

The report focuses on four themes: the causes of the crash; the issue of flying over conflict areas; the reason for the delay in confirming to the relatives of the victims that their loved ones had been on board; and the extent to which the victims consciously experienced the crash.

The investigation is not concerned with the question of blame or liability as this is a matter for the criminal investigation.

During the presentation of the results, reconstruction of part of the airplane made of recovered pieces of wreckage, part of the cockpit and business class section, will be shown.

The responsibility for shooting down the aircraft remains a serious bone of contention between Russia and the West, with Moscow blaming the Ukrainian government, while the latter is accusing the pro-Russian separatists.

The plane was most probably shot down by a BuK-M1 missile.

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