Dutch Safety Board will publish final MH17 report in October

The Dutch Safety Board (DSB) has said on Oct. 13, 2015, it will publish its final report on the investigation into the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

It said that, in September, relatives of those who died in the crash would receive invitations to a closed meeting, at which they would be informed about the conclusions of the investigation prior to the official publication of the report.

The Boeing 777-200 aircraft is believed to have been shot down while transiting the airspace of eastern Ukraine on a scheduled flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people on board. At the request of the Ukrainian authorities,the DSB assumed responsibility for the investigation of the crash since the flight originated in Amsterdam and the majority of the passengers – 196 – were Dutch nationals.

A preliminary report published by the DSB in September 2014 said there were “no indications that the MH17 crash was caused by a technical fault or by actions of the crew,” and that the aircraft “broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.” 

Earlier this month, the DSB and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), set up in August 2014 to handle the criminal investigation into the crash, reported they were investigating several parts that they described as “possibly originating from a Buk surface-air-missile system.”

These parts were collected during a previous recovery-mission in eastern Ukraine and were “of particular interest to the criminal investigation as they can possibly provide more information about who was involved in the crash of MH17,” the DSB said.  It said the JIT would enlist the help of international experts, including forensic specialists and weapons experts. 

The DSB said at the time that it was not possible to establish “a causal connection between the discovered parts and the crash of flight MH17,” but it said that it would report on these discovered parts in its final report.

The DSB is responsible for the safety investigation of the crash, with the aim of determining the cause and making recommendations to prevent reoccurrence of the disaster in the future.

The JIT is responsible for the criminal investigation and is being coordinated by the Netherlands Public Prosecutor’s Office. It includes the police and judicial authorities of Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine, as well as the Netherlands. Its aim is to identify those responsible for the crash and collect evidence which can be used in court.