MH17: Secret draft report given to probe countries

PETALING JAYA: The Dutch Safety Board has completed a draft report on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 with the final report expected in October.

The confidential report was made available to the countries involved in the probe, namely Malaysia, Ukraine, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Netherlands on June 1.

The countries have until August 1 to make comments on the draft.

A report said the draft addresses the cause of the crash as well as whether the plane should have been assigned that flight path, and whether the process of releasing passenger information could have been better handled.

It will also make a judgement as to whether the passengers on board were aware of the crash – though it may decide there is not enough information to say for sure.

The draft also contains the final conclusions of an international team of investigators who have been working for the last year to determine the cause of the tragedy.

All 298 crew and passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines jet died in the crash on July 17 last year.

Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine en route from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam on July 17, 2014. The Boeing 777 airliner was carrying 298 passengers and crew members, all of whom died in the crash.

The Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Belgium and the UK have proposed a UN tribunal to try those responsible for downing the plane, but Russia last week dismissed the idea as “not timely and counterproductive”.

The Netherlands has been tasked with leading the investigation into the cause of the crash. An official inquiry is expected to publish its findings this summer.