Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash: Everything we know about the gunning down of a passenger plane

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The shape of the fragments of shrapnel found in the wreckage and in the bodies of some of those on board gives certainty, say the investigators, that: “The aircraft was struck by a 9N315M warhead as carried on a 9M38-series missile and launched by a Buk surface-to-air missile system.” It concludes that the two pilots and the purser, who were sitting in the cockpit, died instantly when the warhead exploded. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events A satellite photograph shown on Russian television claiming to show a jet closing in on the Malaysia Airlines aircraft has been discredited as a fake. The Dutch Safety Board excludes the possibility of any other cause, saying: “No other scenario can explain this combination of factors.” Why was the aircraft in an area where there was an armed conflict? Tass, the official Russian news agency, says: “Russian officials have repeatedly expressed distrust towards the JIT’s conclusions, which carried out a criminal investigation of the MH17 case and pointed to the groundlessness of the arguments presented by the prosecution and the reluctance to use Moscow’s conclusions in conducting the investigation.” It is thought very unlikely that the three men found guilty of the attack will ever be seen outside Russia again.