Crash: Malaysia B772 near Donetsk on Jul 17th 2014, aircraft was shot downBy Simon Hradecky, created Tuesday, Sep 9th 2014 08:01Z, last updated Tuesday, Sep 9th 2014 16:12Z

On Sep 9th 2014 the Dutch Onderzoeksraad (DSB) released their preliminary report, the chairman of the DSB summarized the findings so far: "Flight MH-17 proceeded as normal until it ended abruptly. Listening to the communications of the crew members in the cockpit via the cockpit voice recorder reveals no sign of any technical faults or an emergency situation. The pattern created by the wreckage on the ground suggests an inflight break up of the aircraft. Available images show that pieces of wreckage were punctured in numerous places. The pattern of damage to the body of the aircraft and the cockpit is consistent with the damage that would be expected from a large number of high energy objects that penetrated the aircraft. This is probably what led to the structural damage to the aircraft and would also explain the abrupt end to the data registration on the recorders and simultaneous loss of contact with air traffic control and the aircraft's disappearance from the radar. The initial results of the investigations point towards an external cause of the MH-17 crash. More research will be necessary to determine the cause with greater precision."

The DSB already states that much more research is being needed before a final report can be produced. In principle the DSB estimates the final report to be released one year after the crash.

According to the map released by the DSB the last FDR position was at position "N48.123 E38.522".

The DSB reported that the DSB was informed by Ukrainian's National Bureau of Air Accident Investigations (NBAAI) on Jul 18th 2014 about 06:00Z that contact with the crew of 9M-MRD had been lost at about 13:20Z on Jul 17th 2014. A signal of the ELT had been received and its location was determined. The NBAAI initiated an investigation the same day and delegated the investigation to the DSB on Jul 23rd.

The DSB stated: "The occurrence took place over open farmland south and west of the village of Hrabove in eastern Ukraine. At the time of the occurrence an armed civil conflict was ongoing in Ukraine, between armed groups and Ukrainian armed forces. The aircraft parts came down in the area that was under control of the armed groups. Coordinated access to the wreckage site by the international team of air safety investigators has not yet been possible. It is the intention of the Dutch Safety Board to visit the site whenever it is possible to safely conduct further investigation of the wreckage. However, investigators of the NBAAI made a number of short visits to the site between 19 July 2014 and 21 July 2014, and took photographs of items of wreckage. These photographs were made available to the investigation team. The investigator-in-charge (IIC) of the Dutch Safety Board investigation also received photographs and a report from the Malaysian investigation team, regarding the team’s onsite investigation. That investigation was carried out on their own initiative between 22 July 2014 and 24 July 2014. The information received is used in this Dutch Safety Board investigation."

The DSB reported that the flight was planned to enter Ukrainian Airspace at FL330 and climb to FL350 crossing waypoint PEKIT at FL350. Dnipropetrovsk (Dnipro) Control therefore checked with the crew of MH-17 whether they were able to climb to FL350 with the intention to also clear a possible conflict with another Boeing 777 at FL330 closing up from behind, the crew replied they were unable to climb FL350, ATC therefore had the other traffic climb to FL350.

At 13:00Z the crew of MH-17 requested to divert 20nm to the left due to weather, which was granted by Dnipro Control. The crew subsequently requested to climb to FL340, which was not granted by Dnipro Control due to conflicting traffic.

At 13:19:53Z the aircraft was 3.6nm north of the centerline of airway L980 having deviated to the left when Dnipro Control instructed the aircraft to proceed direct to waypoint RND due to traffic. At 13:19:56Z the crew acknowledged that instruction, at 13:20:00Z Dnipro Control radioed additional instructions but did not receive any reply, the radio transmission had started at 13:20:00Z and ended at 13:20:05Z and contained the clearance to proceed direct to TIKNA after passing RND.

Both black boxes stopped recording at 13:20:03z. No distress message was transmitted.

Shortly after 13:20Z both Ukrainian and Russian radar lost contact with the aircraft. At that time three other aircraft, one westbound, were in the area with a minimum distance to MH-17 of about 30km. Dnipro Control called MH-17 several times until 13:35:50Z but did not receive a reply. Other aircraft in the area were queried whether they were able to see MH-17 but no crew was able to see the aircraft.

The aircraft was found dispersed over a large area.

The last seconds of radio transcript with MH-17 reads:

13:19:49 DNP MH17 RAD MALASIAN one seven, due traffic proceed direct to point ROMEO NOVEMBER DELTA

13:19:56 MH17 DNP RAD ROMEO NOVEMBER DELTA, MALASIAN one seven

13:20:00 DNP MH17 RAD MALASIAN one seven, and after point ROMEO NOVEMBER DELTA expect direct to TIKNA

The DSB reported: "According to the documents, the aircraft was in an airworthy condition at departure, there were no known technical malfunctions."

With respect to weather the DSB reported: "Analyses of ground observations show that in the vicinity of the occurrence multiple thundershowers were reported. Just to the west-south-west of the last known position of the aircraft, cumulonimbus (CB) clouds reaching up to FL350 were present at the time. According to meteorological actual reports, the conditions were generally cloudy across the area, with the observations recording a broken cloud layer at around 10,000 feet. Visibilities across the region were good, at 10 km or more, and the lowest reported cloud bases were some scattered layers at 3300 feet at UKDD Dnipropetrovs’k, Ukraine) and UKDE (Zaporizhzhia / Mokraya, Ukraine). The winds at the surface were north or north-easterly, and tended to gradually veer with height, eventually settling on a south-westerly direction from around 23,000 feet, after which they increased in speed with height towards the tropopause, which was indicated around 40,000 feet. The reported wind at FL320 was from 166 degrees at 13 kts."

Due to hostilities between armed groups the airspace over the southern part of Dnipropetrovsk FIR had been restricted at and below FL320 (in the Dutch version of the report the DSB states that the actual reason for the restriction was the shoot down of an Antonov AN-24 at FL210 on July 14th, that sentence missing in the English translation of the report by error). The DSB stated: "At the time of the occurrence, flight MH17 was flying at FL330 in unrestricted airspace above the restricted area mentioned by the latest NOTAM."

The DSB reported: "The flight recorders were not recovered from the wreckage site by investigators of the Annex 13 investigation team, but individuals unknown to the team took them from the site. On 21 July 2014, the recorders were handed over to a Malaysian official in Donetsk by representatives of the armed group controlling the area. The recorders were transported by train from Donetsk to Kharkiv in custody of a Malaysian official and accompanied by Dutch officials and then transported to Kiev also in custody of a Malaysian official and accompanied by Dutch and ICAO officials. In Kiev the recorders were handed over to the Dutch Safety Board on 22 July 2014. Immediately after the handover to the Dutch Safety Board, the recorders were transported to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch’s laboratory at Farnborough, United Kingdom, accompanied by an international team of air safety investigators from Germany, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and representatives of ICAO. At Farnborough a French investigator joined the team whereupon the work to download the data of both recorders was started. Later on an air safety investigator of the Interstate Aviation Committee also joined the team. No evidence or indications of manipulation of the recorders were found."

The DSB described the cockpit voice recorder: "The housing of the CVR (figure 4) had been damaged and, although the model and serial numbers were unreadable on the data plate, the serial number 1366 - matching the one provided by Malaysia Airlines - was found stamped on the underside of the chassis. The external damage found on the CVR is consistent with impact damage, the internal memory module was intact. The recording capacity of this recorder is 30 minutes. The full 30 minutes were successfully downloaded and contained valid data from the flight."

The DSB summarized the recordings of the cockpit voice recorder: "No aural warnings or alerts of aircraft system malfunctions were heard on the cockpit voice recording, which ended at 13.20:03 hrs. Crew communication gave no indication that there was anything abnormal with the flight." and stated that detailed analysis of the CVR is still ongoing. The CVR recordings matched the ATC recordings.

With respect to the flight data recorder the DSB reported: "The label on the housing of the FDR (figure 5) showed that it was Allied Signal Model Number 980-4700-003 with Serial Number 2196. These details matched the details provided by Malaysia Airlines. The recorder was found damaged but the internal memory module was intact. The external damage found on the FDR was consistent with impact damage. The FDR, which can record 25 hours of operational data, was successfully downloaded and contained valid data from the occurrence flight. Downloaded data from the flight was decoded using multiple software tools from different manufacturers. The data is consistent with other recorded information regarding the flight of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Furthermore the unique ICAO 24-bit aircraft address issued by the State of Registry (Malaysia) matched the recorded ICAO 24-bit aircraft address code on the FDR. The State of Registry registered the aircraft with this code as 9M-MRD."

The FDR recordings were summarized by the DSB: "The data on the Flight Data Recorder indicated that the aircraft was flying at FL330, on a constant displayed heading of 115° and at a constant speed of 293 kts computed airspeed (groundspeed 494 kts, equals 915 kilometres per hour). According to the data on the FDR, both engines were running at cruise power. All indications regarding the operation of the engines were normal. No aircraft system warnings or cautions were detected. The data stopped abruptly at 13.20:03 hrs."

The DSB described the debris field: "Large parts from around the cockpit and forward section were found in the area closest to the last recorded FDR position (figure 6). Among these parts were portions of the cockpit, the forward cargo bay floor and the cockpit side wall. The remains of the cockpit were located at the southern end of Rozsypne, 2.3 km east from the last recorded FDR position. Photographs from the some wreckage showed that a number of pieces contained multiple holes and indentations. Around 1.7 km north of the position where the cockpit window structure was found, was a section of the cockpit roof also showing holes indicating penetration from outside. Noting that the investigation team has not yet had the opportunity to recover these components for forensic examination, photographs from the wreckage indicated that the material around the holes was deformed in a manner consistent with being punctured by high-energy objects. The characteristics of the material deformation around the puncture holes appear to indicate that the objects originated from outside the fuselage."

In short the DSB summarized the findings at the debris field: "The pattern of damage observed in the forward fuselage and cockpit section of the aircraft was consistent with the damage that would be expected from a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside." and "The fact that there were many pieces of aircraft structure distributed over a large area indicated that the aircraft broke up in the air."