MH17 crash probe to publish initial findings
The Dutch Safety Board (DSB), which is leading the investigation into the disaster that killed 298 people, will issue the report next Tuesday.
The DSB said: “The preliminary report will present factual information based on the sources available to the board.
“In the months to come, further investigation is needed before the final report can be written.”
The board expects to publish the final report within a year of the crash.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 over war-torn Ukraine on July 17.
However, it is widely believed the plane may have been hit by a missile fired by pro-Russian separatists.
The plane was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, with the majority of those on board being Dutch.
The DSB has not been able to visit the crash site because the safety of the investigators could not be guaranteed.
The black boxes from the flight were recovered and were taken to the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch’s (AAIB) headquarters in Farnborough, Hampshire, for analysis.
The DSB said that both the boxes were damaged but that valid flight data had been successfully downloaded.
The DSB has already announced that its preliminary report will include not only the black box findings but also information gathered from satellite and other images, and radar information.
In a question-and-answer section on its website, the DSB posed the question whether it would be publicly releasing the content from the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder which comprise the two black boxes.
The answer given by the board was: “Investigative materials and sources of information used by the DSB in its investigations are protected by law.
“Only information relevant to determining the cause of the MH17 crash will be included in the final report,” it stated.
The Ukraine crash came only four months after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 — also a Boeing 777 — en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The flight on March 8 was carrying 239 people and its disappearance sparked a massive international search operation that has so far been unable to locate the aircraft.
Malaysia Airlines has scrapped the title of a competition asking people what activities and destinations are on their “bucket list,” acknowledging it was inappropriate given the two deadly disasters the airline suffered this year.
A bucket list is a term used to describe a list of adventures people want to have before they die.
The ‘My Ultimate Bucket List Campaign’ asked customers to come up with suggestions, the best of which would win prizes, including flights on the airline.
All references to the list have been scrubbed from the airline’s website but cached copies of the competition’s terms and conditions are still visible in Google searches.
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