Dutch Safety Board Publishes Reports on MH17 Downing
"The investigation was not concerned with question of blame or liability. Answering those question is a matter for the criminal investigation," according to the board.
The Dutch Safety Board on Oct. 13 is publishing its reports on the July 17, 2014, crash of flight MH17 in Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard the aircraft, including 193 Dutch citizens. The preliminary findings say the plane was struck by "high-energy objects from outside the aircraft," which many interpret to mean a surface-to-air missile brought the plane down. But the reports do not assign responsibility: "The investigation was not concerned with question of blame or liability. Answering those question is a matter for the criminal investigation," according to the board.
According to a timeline posted by the board, relatives of those who died in the crash will first be informed of the investigation's results at 11 a.m. local time by Tjibbe Joustra, chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, in The Hague. He will present the results to the media at 1:15 p.m. at Gilze-Rijen air base, and the reports (available in English and Dutch) will then be posted, along with a video animation from the board that explains the findings and conclusions of the investigation. Joustra is scheduled to make a presentation at 4 p.m. in a closed meeting with the Dutch House of Representatives.
The reports focus on four themes: the causes of the crash, the issue of flying over conflict areas, why Dutch surviving relatives had to wait for two to four days for confirmation from the Dutch authorities that their loved ones had been on the plane, and to what extent the occupants of flight MH17 consciously experienced the crash.