The team of investigators released the report after more than a year of investigations on the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing shot down over the skies of Ukraine in 2014. The Russian response, in a clumsy attempt to refute it, contradicts all its previous reconstructions, eventually confirming it.
Investigators of the Dutch Safety Board said what everyone already knew for a year. The Malaysia flight MH17 was shot down by a Buk type surface-to-air Russian missile. And so did the Russians who, in an attempt to hide the mobile anti-aircraft system as much as possible, had so far reshuffled the cards with a series of reconstructions that range from incredible to seen-in-James-Bond-movies.
Now that what was the most likely explanation – even before the sophisticated investigations on the Boeing remains and black box – is also the official one, the Russian version changes again. But messing up with counter-explanations, it ends up confirming the work of the DSB.
Both versions match
The 279-page report analyzes all the hypotheses. Even the fall of a meteorite or space debris. And it excludes all them on the basis of evidences and black box data. It excludes it was an air-to-air missile, as well as a MANPAD. In the end, the material not belonging to the aircraft or to the load – missile fragments and pieces of metal in the shape of cube or bow-tie – found in the wreckage and the bodies of the victims indicate only one responsible, the Russian-made BUK.
By analyzing the milliseconds interval of the peak captured in the cockpit and triangulating the position of the four microphones, it has been created with high precision the point of impact.
The report is a serious matter, ant it has to be taken seriously.
At the Russian state company Almaz-Anteya, however, experts didn’t aim at anything less. Indeed, they went even further. Not satisfied with the remains of the Boeing, they took an Ilyushin-86 – a real one – and hit it with a BUK missile, a real one. After all, the same Almaz-Anteya produces the BUK missiles.
The report published matches on many points with the Dutch Safety Board one. The position of the missile, the damage on the aircraft fuselage, the launch area. The conclusions, however, are different. Russians say that the flight MH17 was downed by a BUK version supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces, the type 9M38, loaded only with cubic fragments and. Russians claim they only use the type 9M38M1, the only one loaded with cubic and bow-tie fragments. They come to this conclusion because the wrecks of the Boeing don’t show bow-tie shaped holes, while the Ilyushin used in their experiment has plenty.
One should say that the Ilyushin-86 is not a Boeing 777. And, above all, the Russians made a static experiment, while in reality the plane was flying at 250 meters per second and the missile at 600 m/s.
A Buk, undoubtedly
Russian experts are not aware they definitely agree with the DSB conclusions. In the DSB report is clearly written several times that “Fragments on the shape of cubes or bow-ties […] were found in the wreckage and in the bodies of three of the crew members”. The same fragments that fill the BUK 9M38M1 that, according to the manufacturer itself – the same Almaz-Anteya who led the investigations – , are supplied to the Russian armed forces. The Dutch also published photos of the bow-tie fragments.
But the Russians approach is even more disarming.
While speculating about fragments and shape of holes, types and subtypes of the BUK that may have downed the MH17, they just took for granted it was a BUK. Contradicting the entire Russian narrative that, to make the BUK disappear from the scenes, blamed the Ukrainians and Americans and made reconstructions of air-to-air missiles fired from a Ukrainia fighter (before a SU 25, then a Mig-29). Have we forgotten the “satellite photo” of the fighter while firing a missile at Boeing, debunked by the blogosphere within a couple of hours?
The reality is that now there is no doubt it was a BUK missile, launched from the ground, that reached the Boeing at cruise speed and altitude, and exploded near the cockpit without impact. Exactly the same conditions simulated by the Dutch and replicated live by the Russians. Any other question?
@daniloeliatweet
Investigators of the Dutch Safety Board said what everyone already knew for a year. The Malaysia flight MH17 was shot down by a Buk type surface-to-air Russian missile. And so did the Russians who, in an attempt to hide the mobile anti-aircraft system as much as possible, had so far reshuffled the cards with a series of reconstructions that range from incredible to seen-in-James-Bond-movies.
Now that what was the most likely explanation – even before the sophisticated investigations on the Boeing remains and black box – is also the official one, the Russian version changes again. But messing up with counter-explanations, it ends up confirming the work of the DSB.
