As most people know, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed on July 17, 2014 after being shot down, which ended up killing all 238 passengers and 15 crew on board. Investigation took place immediately as to how this happened, and after a long 15 months, the Dutch Safety Board confirmed the rumors that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made Buk surface to-air missile.
Many suspected this was the case, but Russia has been spending the past 15 months generating all different reasons for why the plane crashed, trying to push the blame away from them. Now that the cat is out of the bag, Russia is claiming that the fatale missile was an older model that the Russian armed forces no longer use. They also claim that it was fired from territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.
One of the most shocking reports from the first days of this plane crash investigation was that investigators were blocked from the crash site by armed pro-Russian fighters. When the investigators were finally let in, the wreckage of the plane was widely scattered.
During this extensive investigation, they made sure not to rule out any reasons for how the plane crashed such as a pilot error or some weather mishap. But what made this examination so tough was that the plane fell out of the sky at 33,000 feet and then broke up in the air. This made it a lot more complicated to figure out which pieces were caused by impact with the ground or with a foreign object.
To help the Dutch better analyze the case of this plane, they built a steel framework that exactly matched the size and shape of the plane. They attached every piece of the planes body that was recovered from the crash site.
The Dutch prosecutors will assign responsibility for the fatal crash. The Dutch Safety Board's detailed report is consistent though with the theories advanced by the United States and Ukraine, which they say that the fatal missile was fired from territory controlled by Russian-backed rebels in the eastern Ukraine.
Russia claims that their corporation that manufactures Buk missiles, Almaz-Antey, that the kind of missile that would have to take this plane down would have a bowtie-shape shrapnel, which they said was not found at the crash site. Almaz-Antey held a news conference on Tuesday to make this announcement. But, according to the Dutch board, they discovered fragments of the exact shape, including some in the bodies of the cockpit crew.
So, what does the public think?
A public opinion poll that was taken in July by the Levada Center found that 44 percent of Russians believe that the plane crashed by the Ukrainian military, 17 percent think it was the United States, and only 3 percent believe it was the work of separatists. This survey shows just how powerful the propaganda is in Russia.
There is no doubt that President Vladimir Putin is popular among his Russian citizens, as they believe their President would never be involved in such an awful catastrophe, and they will keep defending him. Putin has and will continue to to make excuses to keep denying that they were involved.
We must commend the Dutch though for their dedicated and timely work. They are the ones who lost the most people in this tragedy, and they put a lot of thoroughness into this investigation.
To those who lost loved ones in this calamity, may you find peace soon; and to those who lost their lives, may you rest in peace.
