UN aviation agency hails Dutch report on crash of MH17

The reconstructed cockpit of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is seen after the presentation of the final report regarding its crash, in Gilze Rijen, the Netherlands, October 13, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

UNITED NATIONS - The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on Tuesday welcomed the Dutch Safety Board's final report about investigation into crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here.

The head of ICAO's Council said that they will review the report's recommendations and respond as needed, Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"In the weeks after the MH17 tragedy, the ICAO set up a special task force on risks to civil aviation arising from conflict zones," he said. "The Task Force recommended that ICAO should establish an online system where States could share their conflict zone information more effectively, and where the public could also access it." The online site was launched in April.

The Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crash was caused by a Buk missile system, concluded the Dutch Safety Board in one of its final reports published Tuesday. Dutch Safety Board led the investigation into the cause of the air crash.

"The in-flight breakup of the aircraft near the Ukrainian/Russian border was caused by the detonation of a warhead close to the left front of the plane," The Dutch Safety Board director Tjibbe Joustra said during a presentation held at Gilze-Rijen Airbase of the Netherlands Tuesday. "The weapon used was a warhead model 9N314M a missile 9M38 series, as installed on the Buk surface-to-air missile system."

"Additional forensic is needed to determine the location of the launch," Joustra added.

Prior to the official publication of the final reports, around 600 relatives were informed about the conclusions of the investigation during a closed information meeting at the World Forum in The Hague, the Netherlands.

According to the relatives, the reports stated that occupants of the Malaysian Airlines flight lost consciousness seconds after the impact of a missile, with the cockpit crew being killed instantly.

The Boeing 777 Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17 last year on its way from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All 298 people on board died.

On Sept 9 last year the DSB already issued its first preliminary report, stating the crash had an external cause, probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.