Rosaviation sends the Netherlands ‘new important facts’ claiming the MH17 final report is untrue

Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviation, has delivered to Dutch investigators “important new facts” concerning the July 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine.

Rosaviation believes these new facts should be “reflected in the final report” on the circumstances of the plane crash.

Rosaviation deputy head Oleg Storchevoy mentioned the new data in a letter addressed to the head of the Dutch Safety Board, Tjibbe Joustra.

“New important facts have been obtained by Russian specialists conducting additional experiments and studies on the crash. They indicate that unfounded and untrue information was cited in the final report. The new facts call into question findings on:

1. the likelihood of heavy air defense systems being in eastern Ukraine, which were not under the control of the Ukrainian authorities,
   
2. whether the plane was indeed impacted by an explosion from a 9N314M high-explosive fragmentation warhead,
   
3. the identification of the warhead and 9М38 rocket being fired from a BUK weapons system, and
   
4. the spatial position of the missile relative to the aircraft at the time of the explosion and the location of the missile launch site.
   

Rosaviation says the fragments of the warhead and the holes in the plane's fuselage “do not conform to the characteristics of a 9N314M warhead,” and “the algorithm for a radio frequency fuse used in a BUK systems 9M38 series rocket, which the final report cites, is not consistent with the way the plane was destroyed.”

Moreover, in April 2014, it was the job of Ukrainian authorities to close the airspace over the conflict zone in Donetsk, says the Rosaviation deputy head.

Another “new important fact” has to do with the location, size, and limits of the damage, and the number and density of the holes on the aircraft's remains, and the nature of the damage to the Boeing 777's structure. 

Apparently, these pieces of evidence are not consistent with the detonation point and rocket orientation cited by the final report. Therefore, the rocket launch point is incorrect, says Rosaviation. 

Boeing 777 Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine's Donetsk region on July 17, 2014. The plane was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. All 298 people on board were killed.

Immediately following the crash, pro-Russian separatists were blamed for having fired a missile at the plane.

The Dutch Safety Board submitted a final report on the plane crash on October 13, 2015, showing that the passenger plane was shot down by anti-aircraft missile fired from a Russian-made BUK weapons system.

The Dutch report does not indicate the precise launch point of the anti-aircraft missile. Ukraine argues the missile was launched from a pro-Russian separatist controlled area.

Russian-owned Almaz-Antey, which manufactures the BUK weapons system, conducted its own investigation and concluded that the missile was launched from areas under the control of the Ukrainian military. Furthermore, Russia claims that the plane was shot down with a missile fitted for BUK weapons systems, but not used by the Russian army.

Almaz-Antey's investigation has been widely criticized, including by blogger Eliot Higgins's “Bellingcat” project.