On July 17th, 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight #17, a Boeing 777-200 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot out of the skies above eastern Ukraine. Aboard the aircraft were 298 passengers and crew, all of whom perished in the crash. At first glance, there is much controversy and mystery surrounding the incident, but a closer examination of the established facts will quickly disperse any smokescreen.
The aircraft departed from runway 36C at 12.31 (all times CET), flying southeast over Germany as it climbed to cruising altitude. By the time it was over Ukraine, the plane was flying high at around 33,000 feet. At 15.19:56 the crew of MH17 acknowledged a navigational message from Dnipro Radar Control, which was followed shortly thereafter by another message from Dnipro Radar at 15.20:00 advising MH17 to proceed to their next navigation waypoint. No reply was ever received. At around 15.30, locals living near the village of Hrabove began reporting aircraft wreckage and human remains falling from the sky. People in the villages of Rozsypne and Petropavlivka also reported wreckage. Overall, debris from the crash spread across a 50km2 area. All 283 passengers, 11 cabin crew members, and 4 flight crew members were killed in the incident.
The aircraft in question (9M-MRD) on a previous flight
The aircraft was travelling at 293 knots at an altitude of 32,998 feet when the aircraft’s Flight Data Recorder (FDR) stopped recording information. No alarms, warnings, or verbal messages were recorded in the cockpit by the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). However, in the last 20 milliseconds of the CVR’s recording there are two rapid peaks of sound. The first peak lasts 2.1 milliseconds and is followed 2.3 milliseconds later by the second peak, which lasts 2.3 milliseconds. There are four microphones located around the cockpit of the 777-200; one for each pilot (P1 on the left, and P2 on the right), one cockpit area microphone (CAM) dead-center above the pilots, and one observer microphone (OBS) in the right-rear of the cockpit. The sound was registered on all four microphones in the following order: CAM and P1 first, followed by P2, and finally OBS. Based on that information, we can deduce that the loud sound immediately before the end of the FDR/CVR record originated on the left-hand side of the cockpit (where P1 is located) and spread from the front-left to the rear-right of the cockpit.
Direction of the sound anomaly on MH17’s CVR (courtesy Dutch Safety Board)
Recovery of the wreckage allowed investigators to pinpoint the location of initial damage that caused the breakup of the aircraft. While the aircraft was completely destroyed during the crash, certain elements of the event left unique fingerprints on the wreckage. The front of the fuselage, along with the cockpit, showed telltale signs of external objects impacting the body of the aircraft at high speed. These perforation holes were combined with crush and tear marks on the metal from the front of the aircraft.
Satellite image purporting to be of MH17 being shot down
There were also some small perforations in the left engine intake ring and along the left wing tip. The damage is therefore consistent with high-energy foreign objects impacting the aircraft, penetrating the body and bending the material inward. The right side of the cockpit was largely unaffected by said objects. There was also damage to the left side of the cockpit caused by blast pressure, but the majority of the damage came from objects perforating the skin. Over 800 of these high-energy objects impacted the aircraft, 350 of which were found in the wreckage. The impact of these objects shredded the exterior of the aircraft near the cockpit, leading to the rapid disintegration of the aircraft.
Thus, the objects that destroyed MH17 came from the outside. The three possibilities are, therefore: a surface-to-air missile (SAM), an air-to-air missile (AAM), or air-to-air cannon/gunfire. To trace the source of these objects it is important to consider the objects themselves. Recovered in the wreckage was a mixture of cube-shaped and bowtie-shaped metal objects which did not originate with the aircraft. Considering the damage has been attributed to the front of the aircraft, air-to-air cannon fire is highly unlikely. The number of perforations from gunfire would not have exceeded several dozen at most, far lower than the 350 objects found (or the 800 perforations detected) because a nose-on cannon shot is incredibly difficult to manage at any altitude/speed, much less at 33,000 feet with the target moving at 293 knots. In addition to this, cannon fire does not explain the presence of the metal objects found in the wreckage. Finally, in order for an aircraft to have attacked MH17 with cannon fire, it would have needed to be nearby. Primary radar data indicates that no military aircraft were present within at least 30 km of the flight at the time of the crash. Russian media, in particular RT, have fronted the idea that a Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot attack aircraft shot down MH17 with its cannons. This is not only highly unlikely, it is downright impossible. The Su-25 lacks a pressurized cockpit and is incapable of sustaining flight at 30,000+ feet, and furthermore is a ground attack aircraft, not a fighter. It is essentially the Soviet/Russian equivalent of the American A-10 Thunderbolt II, designed to engage enemy tanks and ground formations, not aircraft.
Fragments found inside MH17 (cubic and bowtie)
Another theory thrust into the spotlight by RT and other Russian media sites is that a Ukrainian fighter jet shot down MH17 with an air-to-air missile. The Ukrainian military possesses AAMs with two kinds of destructive power: some that detonate and throw out high-energy fragments, and one that detonates and throws out a ring of metal rods that penetrate the skin of the aircraft. As the objects found with MH17 were bowtie-shaped pieces of metal, we know they were not metal rods. Furthermore, none of the AAMs in service with the Ukrainian military contain bowtie-shaped fragments, but rather contain cube-shaped fragments. Thus the damage done to MH17 could not have come from a Ukrainian AAM. Russian media have released a satellite image purporting to be from the moment a “Ukrainian MiG-29” shot down MH17 with an AAM. The image is problematic to say the least. To begin, the aircraft shooting the missile in the image is actually an Su-27, not a MiG-29; the aircraft being fired upon is a Boeing 767 in Boeing factory colors, not a 777 in Malaysian Airlines colors; finally, the aircraft is either about four miles long, or it’s 300m from the satellite. Based on those reasons, we can quietly disregard Russia’s AAM theory.
Buk 332, the launcher responsible for downing MH17
We therefore know it was a SAM that brought down MH17. Shoulder-launched missiles known as MANPADS (man-portable air-defense systems) cannot, at present, come anywhere close to 33,000 feet. This means the SAM was launched by a larger system, either fixed or vehicle-mounted. These systems are capable of destroying high-flying aircraft such as a Boeing 777 at cruising altitude. The three types of SAM in the region that are capable of engaging a target at 33,000 feet are the S-200, the S-300, and the 9K37 Buk. The S-200 uses spherical fragments, whereas the S-300 uses cubic fragments. Neither of these would explain the bowtie-shaped fragments. The 9K37 Buk (henceforth Buk) first became operational in 1979 and has been upgraded several times. The Buk, Buk-M1, and Buk-M2 all use the 9M38-series missile, which carries the 9N314M warhead. This warhead contains a mixture of cubic and bowtie-shaped fragments, which match the dimensions and composition of the fragments found in the wreckage. We can now deduce that the fatal damage to MH17 was caused by a 9N314M warhead fired by a Buk missile system.
Combining the sound anomaly recorded by the CVR, the pattern of damage originating outside the aircraft from the front-left, and the presence of foreign metal objects in the wreckage, we can see that the aircraft was targeted with a missile which detonated, as designed, within proximity of the aircraft. The warhead, located near the middle of the missile, detonated in a 360-degree ring, tearing into the cockpit of MH17 and separating the front of the aircraft from the body. The speed and pressure ripped the plane apart, and it is unlikely any of those on-board were aware of what was happening to them.
In the moments following the shoot-down of MH17, Russian Colonel and separatist commander Igor Girkin posted on VK (Russian social media site) claiming to have shot down a Ukrainian military transport, an Antonov An-26, near Torez, Ukraine (22.8 km from where MH17 came down). The post was later scrubbed from social media. In July 2014, Ukraine’s intelligence service released audio purporting to be of the separatists discussing the shoot-down of MH17. In the audio, the separatists notice shortly after the missile is fired that the victims falling from the sky are all civilians, and their voices grow more frantic as the realization of what has just occurred sets in. Investigative journalist organization Bellingcat has investigated the origins and operators of the Buk system which brought down MH17, and although a plethora of information exists which points to a Russian military or pro-Russian separatist-operated Buk M-1 system shooting down the aircraft, UN Security Council actions which would bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice have been vetoed by Russia.
For more information on the shoot-down of MH17, please check out the Dutch Safety Board’s report on the crash, from which much of the information in this article came.
