Report confirms MH17 shot down — but why?

Bart Jansen | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption MH17 report: Plane shot down by Russian-made missile Dutch investigators say Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was taken down by a Buk missile fired from eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed in the July 2014 crash.

Investigators confirmed Tuesday that a Russian Buk missile shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, but what the investigation failed to uncover is who shot the missile and why.

The missile attack on the civilian Boeing 777-200, shot down in broad daylight on July 17, 2014, killed 298 passengers and crew on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The Dutch Safety Board led the investigation because 193 of the 298 people killed were from the Netherlands.

The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team, which is building a criminal case, said the work to determine who shot the missile and why will stretch into 2016. The team said in a statement that they had found it difficult to locate and get statements from witnesses.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the country's top priority is "tracking down and prosecuting those responsible."

“It is important to continue to do everything we can to ensure that the guilty parties do not escape justice," he said.

Najib Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister, said the world must ensure that “those responsible are held accountable for this murderous act.”

The investigation, made public Tuesday, found the missile exploded like a shotgun shell just outside the cockpit, killing three crewmembers immediately before breaking off the forward section of the plane. But the report didn’t specify who launched the missile or from where it had come.

Animation illustrates MH17's final moments Dutch investigators released this animation illustrating what happened in the final moments of doomed flight MH17 based on the Safety Board's investigation findings, which were published on October 13, 2015.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the report validated Secretary of State John Kerry's statement more than a year ago that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile launched from territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Separatist leaders bragged "about shooting down an aircraft in the immediate aftermath of this tragic event," Toner said.

Ukraine officials have also argued the missile came from Snizhne, a village under the control of Russian-backed separatists.

Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine at the time of the incident, who was ousted by parliament in June, told USA TODAY that his country has known for a year that Russia shot down the plane. “The international community must put more pressure on Russia for this crime,” he said. “We must act to set up an international tribunal, perhaps in the Hague, to try these criminals and bring them to justice.”

The Russian state-controlled manufacturer of Buk missiles, Almaz-Antey, has disputed that conclusion and contends the missile came from Zaroshenske, a village under Ukrainian government control.

But Nick de Larrinaga, Europe editor for IHS Jane's Defense Weekly, said the definitive conclusion about the Buk missile stems from identification of hourglass fragments found in the wreckage that are "fairly unique" to the warhead.

"The overall picture is conclusive," that a Buk missile was fired from separatist territory, said de Larrinaga, who called the Almaz-Antey statement "disinformation and propaganda."

Ned Price, spokesman for the National Security Council, called the Dutch report an important milestone in the effort to hold those responsible for shooting down the plane accountable through an international investigative effort.

“The report also serves to remind us of this terrible tragedy and the impact it continues to have on those left behind,” Price said.

Robert Latiff, a retired Air Force major general who is now a professor at the University of Notre Dame, said Russian troops would have been too disciplined to shoot down a passenger airliner, but that separatists probably lacked training in the weapons system. Latiff said he suspected “some nervous, anxious, or trigger-happy soldier was at fault.”

The report did reveal what may have been an agonizing last few minutes for the passengers.

The explosion caused a “deafening noise,” the report said. The plane’s decompression, slowing down while breaking up, and then speeding up as it fell to the ground, “may have caused dizziness, nausea and loss of consciousness" among the passengers. The temperature outside the plane was 40 degrees below zero. The powerful airflow from the plane’s speed as it descended apparently tore the clothes off some passengers.

"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," the report said.