Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17)[a] was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian-controlled forces[4][5][6][7] on 17 July 2014, while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.[8] Contact with the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was lost when it was about 50 kilometres (31 mi; 27 nmi) from the Ukraine–Russia border, and wreckage from the aircraft fell near Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, 40 km (25 mi; 22 nmi) from the border.[9] The shoot-down occurred during the war in Donbas over territory controlled by Russian separatist forces.[10]
Shootdown
17 July 2014;
9 years, 11 months ago
Shot down by a Buk 9M38 surface-to-air missile transported from Russia on the day of the crash[1][2]
Near Hrabove, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine
48°08′18.1″N 38°38′21.3″E / 48.138361°N 38.639250°E[3]: 111
MH17
MAS17
Malaysian 17
9M-MRD
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Netherlands
Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia
298
283
15
298
0
The responsibility for investigation was delegated to the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) and the Dutch-led joint investigation team (JIT), which in 2016 reported that the airliner had been downed by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine.[3][11] The JIT found that the Buk originated from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Federation[12][13] and had been transported from Russia on the day of the crash, fired from a field in a rebel-controlled area, and the launch system returned to Russia afterwards.[1][2][12]
The findings by the DSB and JIT were consistent with earlier claims by American and German intelligence sources[14][15] and claims by the Ukrainian government.[16] On the basis of the JIT's conclusions, the governments of the Netherlands and Australia held Russia responsible for the deployment of the Buk installation and began pursuing legal remedies in May 2018.[17][18] The Russian government denied involvement in the shooting down of the airplane,[13][19][20] and its account of how the aircraft was shot down has varied over time.[21] Coverage in Russian media has also differed from that in other countries.[22][23]
On 17 November 2022, following a trial in absentia in the Netherlands, two Russians and a Ukrainian separatist were found guilty of murdering all 298 people on board flight MH17. The Dutch court also ruled that Russia was in control of the separatist forces fighting in eastern Ukraine at the time.[4]
This was Malaysia Airlines' second aircraft loss during 2014, after the disappearance of Flight 370 four months prior on 8 March,[24] and is the deadliest airliner shoot-down incident to date.[25]
Aircraft
Flight 17, which was also marketed as KLM Flight 4103 (KL4103) through a codeshare agreement,[26] was operated with a Boeing 777-2H6ER,[b] serial number 28411, registration 9M-MRD.[3]: 30 The 84th Boeing 777 produced; it first flew on 17 July 1997, exactly 17 years before the incident, and was delivered new to Malaysia Airlines on 29 July 1997.[27] Powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 892 engines and carrying 280 seats (33 business and 247 economy), the aircraft had recorded more than 76,300 hours in 11,430 cycles before the crash.[3]: 30 The aircraft was in an airworthy condition at departure.[3]: 31
The Boeing 777, which entered commercial service on 7 June 1995, has one of the best safety records among commercial aircraft.[28] In June 2014, there were about 1,212 aircraft in service, with 340 more on order.[29]
Aftermath
About 90 minutes after the incident, Ukraine closed all routes in Eastern Ukrainian airspace, at all altitudes.[3]: 101 The incident dramatically heightened fears about airliner shoot-downs,[115] leading to some airlines announcing they would avoid overflying conflict zones.
Shortly after the crash, it was announced that Malaysia Airlines would retire flight number MH17 and change the Amsterdam–Kuala Lumpur route to flight number MH19 beginning on 25 July 2014, with the outbound flight MH16 unchanged.[116][117] In association with the retirement of the Boeing 777 aircraft type from Malaysia Airlines' fleet, Malaysia Airlines ended its service to Amsterdam on 25 January 2016, opting to codeshare with KLM on the KUL-AMS route for the services instead.[118] Following the shootdown, shares in Malaysia Airlines dropped by nearly 16%.[119]
On 23 July 2014, two Ukrainian military jets were hit by missiles at the altitude of 17,000 feet (5,200 m) close to the area of the MH17 crash. According to the Ukrainian Security Council, preliminary information indicated that the missiles came from Russia.[120]
In July 2015, Malaysia proposed that the United Nations Security Council set up an international tribunal to prosecute those deemed responsible for the downing of the aircraft. The Malaysian resolution received the support of 11 of the 15 members in the council, with three abstentions. The resolution was vetoed by Russia.[121] The Russian government proposed an alternative draft resolution, which would not have set up a tribunal.[122][123][124][125][126]
British ISC report
On 20 December 2017, the Intelligence and Security Committee of the UK Parliament published its annual report. It contains a section titled "Russian objectives and activity against UK and allied interests" which quotes MI6 as stating: "Russia conducts information warfare on a massive scale... An early example of this was a hugely intensive, multichannel propaganda effort to persuade the world that Russia bore no responsibility for the shooting down of [Malaysian Airlines flight] MH-17 (an outright falsehood: we know beyond any reasonable doubt that the Russian military supplied and subsequently recovered the missile launcher)".[283][284]
Identification of command figures
In December 2017, the Russian investigative portal The Insider, the news agency McClatchyDC, and Bellingcat following a joint investigation, confirmed the identity of a high-ranking military officer using a call-sign "Dolphin" to be Colonel General Nikolai Fedorovich Tkachev. Tkachev is heard supervising the operation of Buk delivery and set-up in wiretaps acquired by JIT.[285][286] In April 2020 the same three teams identified another high-ranking figure in the chain of command referred to by many DPR and LPR operatives as "Vladimir Ivanovich" to be FSB Colonel General Andrey Ivanovich Burlaka, first deputy chief of the Russian border service.[287][288]
Civil cases
In July 2015 a writ was filed in an American court by families of 18 victims accusing the separatist leader Igor Girkin of "orchestrating the shootdown" and the Russian government of being complicit in the act. The writ was brought under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991.[289] In May 2016 families of 33 victims of the crash filed a claim against Russia and president Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights, arguing Russian actions violated the passengers' right to life.[290][291] A group of 270 relatives of Dutch victims joined the claim in May 2018 after the JIT concluded that Russia was involved.[292] The Dutch government supported this claim by taking Russia to the European Court of Human Rights in July 2020,[279][280] assuming that Moscow had "effective control" of the area of Ukraine where the missile was launched.[293] In January 2023, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights found that the "areas in eastern Ukraine in separatist hands were, from 11 May 2014 and up to at least 26 January 2022, under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation", pointing to the presence in eastern Ukraine of Russian military personnel and regular Russian troops.[294]
In July 2016, Malaysia Airlines was sued in Malaysia by 15 passengers' families in two separate writs, each brought under the Montreal Convention, arguing that the airline should not have chosen that route.[295] A month earlier, a separate lawsuit was brought by the families of six crew members who alleged negligence and breach of contract by the airline.[296]
In popular culture
The shootdown of MH17 is featured in the fourth episode of eighteenth season of the Canadian documentary television programme Mayday, in the episode titled "Deadly Airspace".[407] It is also a major event in Maryna Er Gorbach's film Klondike.[408]