A Russian-made Buk missile downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, according to Dutch investigators probing the July 2014 crash over Ukraine.
The Dutch Safety Board concluded that the airplane traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala broke apart after being hit by a missile fired from easter Ukraine.
USA Today reported:
Dutch Safety Board (DSB) chairman Tjibbe Joustra briefed reporters Tuesday on the findings of the final report into the incident--which does not say who was responsible--and showed them a reconstruction of the front of the Boeing 777. The investigators found the surface-to-air missile exploded less than a yard from the cockpit, killing three crew members. The front of the plane broke off and the aircraft came down over eastern Ukraine, where a conflict was raging between Russian-backed separatists and government forces.
Joustra faulted Ukraine for not closing its airspace to civil aviation, saying Tuesday that "none of the parties involved recognized the risk from the armed conflict on the ground."
According to Ukraine, the missile was fired from Snizhne, an area in the country held by Russian-backed separatists.
Russia has denied any involvement in the incident despite Western officials insisting that the airplane was struck by a surface-to-air missile. The Buk missile manufacturer, which is controlled by Moscow, claimed that its investigation was at odds with that of the Dutch Safety Board.
The 2015 plane crash killed all 298 people onboard, 193 of whom were from the Netherlands.