Reconstruction reveals how MH17 passengers had time to put their oxygen masks on as jetliner plunged to the ground after being hit by Russian missile
- Experts reconstructing flight MH17 say one passenger was found with a mask on
- The front end of the aircraft was rebuilt from around 8,000 fragments
- Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by BUK missile on July 17, 2014
A reconstruction has shown that the passengers of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 had enough time to put on their oxygen masks before the aircraft hit the ground.
Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 by a BUK missile while on its way to Kuala Lumpar from Amsterdam.
298 people, including 80 children, were killed when the Boeing 777 was shot down.
Now, investigators, who have rebuilt the front end of flight MH17 from nearly 8,000 fragments, believe that some passengers had enough time to put on their oxygen masks because at the time, one passenger was found wearing theirs.
A reconstruction has shown that some passengers of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014, had time to put their oxygen masks on
60 Minutes reports that the chief prosecutor investigating the tragedy Fred Westerbeke said: 'We were able to identify, from the 298 casualties, 296. So, for two people we didn't find any remains.'
The reconstruction, housed in a Dutch hangar, shows that around 800 pieces of shrapnel the size of bullets were sent hurtling towards Captain Eugene Choo, creating 102 holes, when the warhead detonated ten feet away.
Meanwhile passengers were exposed to explosive decompression and a 500-mile-an-hour wind at 40 degrees below zero, and one passenger was found wearing their oxygen mask.
The Dutch Safety Board said that the cockpit was ripped away from the rest of the plane.
MH17 left Schiphol Airport at 12:31pm local time before flying east over Germany and Poland. It altered its course to fly over Ukraine to avoid possible thunderstorms.
298 people, including 80 children, were killed when the Boeing 777 was shot down
It had only been three hours into a 12-hour flight when it was shot down over Ukraine which was in the middle of a war that left more than 13,000 people dead.
The last words heard from the crew was a response to a Ukrainian flight controller as they repeated the coordinates 'ROMEO NOVEMBER DELTA, Malaysian one seven'.
In the two days before flight MH17 was downed, two Ukrainian military planes were also shot down in the area.
Ukraine had closed its airspace to civilian travel below 32,000ft and the Dutch Safety Board confirmed that 160 airliners had crossed above this threshold that day.
350 investigators from five countries have been involved over the last six years to identify what happened to MH17.
Investigators have reconstructed the front end of flight MH17 from nearly 8,000 fragments
Flight MH17 had only been three hours into a 12-hour flight from Amsterdam to Kualar Lumpar when it was shot down
Last week the Dutch government said it would be taking Russia to the European Court of Human Rights over its alleged role in the shooting down of flight MH17.
The Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok said: 'Achieving justice for 298 victims of the downing of Flight MH17 is and will remain the government´s highest priority.
'By taking this step today ... we are moving closer to this goal.'
Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of Russia's parliament, called the Dutch move 'a strange initiative from every aspect' in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency.
'The investigation isn't over yet, there have been no court verdicts on the national level yet and, finally, what does the European Court for Human Rights have to do with it?'
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