What happened to MH17

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 broke up after being hit from the outside by numerous "high speed objects," according to an interim report released today.
The initial findings of the probe by the Dutch Safety Board into the air disaster which claimed 298 lives, however, has not as yet confirmed if MH17 was shot down by a missile.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai (pix) said according to the report, the damage observed in the forward section of the aircraft appeared to indicate that the aircraft was penetrated by a large number of such objects.
"It is likely that this damage resulted in a loss of structural integrity of the aircraft, leading to an in-flight break up," he told a press conference at the Transport Ministry here.
Asked if it was caused by a missile, Liow said it could only be confirmed after further analysis.
"I can't speculate (on the object). The report stated very clearly (on the cause). Whether it was a missile .... will be confirmed only after further analysis," he said, adding that what is announced to the public has to be based on the report.
"The aircraft broke up in the air after the penetration, resulting in the wreckage being dispersed over an area of 10km," he said.
Liow added that it has been determined that at the time of the occurrence, the aircraft was flying in an unrestricted airspace, on a route and altitude cleared and under control of the Air Traffic Control (ATC).
The report also indicated that the aircraft was in airworthy condition and all crew were qualified to conduct the flight.
"Based on the preliminary findings to date, no indications of any technical or operational issues were found with the aircraft or crew prior to the ending of the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder at 13.20:03 hours," he said.
The last transmission from the flight crew of MH17 was "ROMEO NOVEMBER DELTA, MALAYSIAN, one seven".
"No distress messages were received at any time by the air traffic control," he said, adding that based on radar information, there were three other commercial aircraft in the same control area as flight MH17.
"At 13.20 hours, the closest aircraft to flight MH17 was just 30km away," he said.
Liow said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak is working with the international community to gain safe passage to the crash site to assist the investigation.
"We need to get to the bottom of it. That is the reason we need to find more details such as (pieces of the) wreckage ... or maybe we need to reconstruct the plane from the wreckage," he said.
"We will try our best to find the culprit ... somebody has to be responsible for the incident. We would like to find out who," he added.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak welcomed the preliminary report into the MH17 tragedy, which was a collaborative effort.
"I urge all parties to work closely together to facilitate this investigation and the production of the final report," he said.
Najib said it was of the utmost importance that the investigation teams gain full and unfettered access to the crash site, in order to recover all human remains, complete their investigation and establish the truth.
"That is why a Malaysian team was sent to Ukraine (on Sept 8). We owe it to the families, who are in our thoughts today," he added.