Investigators from the Dutch Safety Board have issued their preliminary report into the MH17 disaster, in which they have concluded that the B777 broke up in the air after sustaining substantial damage to its cockpit and forward fuselage from high-energy projectiles.
The Dutch Safety Board said that that a “large number of high-energy objects” penetrated the forward section of the jet.
The Board also said: “It is likely that this damage resulted in a loss of structural integrity of the aircraft, leading to an in-flight break-up.”
There was “no indication”, it added, of any technical or operational issue, and no evidence of cockpit alerts to the pilots before the cockpit voice and flight-data recorders ended “abruptly” just after 1620 local time as the aircraft passed over eastern Ukraine.
“Crew communication gave no indication that there was anything abnormal with the flight,” the inquiry said. MH17 had been flying at FL330 at 293kt, with both Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines operating at cruise power.
The Dutch Safety Board has not stated the specific origin or precise nature of the projectiles, but its statement is consistent with initial government-level claims that the B777 was destroyed by the fragmenting warhead of a surface-to-air missile.
None of the 283 passengers and 15 crew members survived the break-up of the aircraft.