A Malaysian Airline Boeing was shot down and crashed in Ukraine.

[PressToTeleport]

Rebels Filmed Finding MH17 Was Passenger Jet

Footage is handed to investigators which shows the moment Ukrainian separatists grasp it was a civilian airliner shot down.

11:53 Friday 17 July 2015

Video: MH17 Crash: Shocking Rebel Footage

[video=youtube;0S6Oqkd1Hc8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S6Oqkd1Hc8[/video]

Footage has emerged of the immediate aftermath of the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 as Russian-backed rebels at the crash site realised it was a passenger jet.

The armed separatists had reportedly been sent to the area to look for the wreckage of a fighter plane which had been shot down and express shock at finding the debris of a civilian airliner instead.

The unedited footage taken by a commander of the rebel group shows a smouldering scene of devastation with fires still burning on the blackened earth and bodies of dead passengers clearly visible.

Plane wreckage and luggage can also been seen strewn across the area.

After initial incomprehension over what has happened, it soon dawned on the rebels the downed plane was a passenger jet.

As they survey the scene of destruction, the commander is heard asking: "Is there another plane?"

Then after ordering a perimeter be set up to keep civilians back, he adds: "This is passenger (plane)."

Amid the smoking wreckage, he says: "Malaysia. Foreigners."

In the background, another person questions who had given them permission to fly through the area.

"Who gave them the corridor?", he asks.

As another man opens a backpack and empties clothes and other personal items on to the ground, voices in the background say: "Civilians, Civilians."

Missile System 'That Downed MH17'

The commander then holds up the Kuala Lumpur International Airport ID of an air stewardess.

He is then heard on the phone saying: "Hello. Yes, yes I am here. Plane was shot down and I am at the site.

He then swears as he says it was a "passenger plane".

The men also seem relieved to find the plane's black box flight recorder.

Coming across a small blood-stained backpack with a luggage tag,the commander said: "Australia, Australia."

The men then search the bag tossing personal effects aside but keeping items that appear to be of value.

Despite establishing it was a passenger flight, some of the group refuse to believe it.

One is heard saying: "Five paratroopers jumped from this plane."

Concerns are also raised over the filming as it may be "leaked on the internet".

News Corp Australia, who obtained the footage, said it had handed over the video to a multinational inquiry team, which is investigating the atrocity.

Nearly 40 of those on board the aircraft were Australian citizens.

Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine a year ago killing all 298 passengers and crew.

The crash site near the village of Hrabove is now marked by flowers and toys brought by locals in memory of the many children who died.

An initial report by crash investigators last year said flight MH17 was probably brought down by "a large number of high-energy objects".

Western powers believe the rebels shot down the plane with a Russian-supplied BUK missile system.

However, Russia denies involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

Moscow and the separatists have suggested the plane was downed with a missile fired from a Ukrainian fighter jet, a claim Kiev has dismissed.

There have been international calls for a UN tribunal into the disaster, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued this would be "counterproductive and premature".

 

[PressToTeleport]

Russia vetoes UN resolution on MH17 tribunal

AFP
July 30, 2015, 3:20 pm

Australia PM slams outrageous Russian MH17 veto

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution Wednesday that sought to set up a special tribunal to try those responsible for shooting down flight MH17 over Ukraine.

Eleven of the 15 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution, which had been drafted by Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine.

Angola, China and Venezuela abstained. The Council session began with a moment's silence in honor of the 298 people killed in the July 17, 2014 disaster.

The resolution was supported by Britain, France and the US, which accuse pro-Russian separatist rebels of shooting down the Boeing 777 with a Buk surface-to-air missile supplied by Russia.

Moscow denies involvement and blames the Ukrainian military. On Wednesday, its ambassador Vitaly Churkin launched into a lengthy defense of Russia's actions, dishing the blame onto others.

Churkin said Russian investigators had been denied equal access to the crash site and criticized what he said would have been criminal prosecution carried out "in a closed fashion."

"What are the grounds to be assured of the impartiality of such an investigation?" Churkin asked in a speech to the Council, lashing out against "aggressive... propaganda in the media."

Western powers on the Council, as well as Australia and the Netherlands, whose citizens together with Malaysia accounted for most of the victims, castigated Russia for its veto.

They insisted the veto would do nothing to silence efforts to seek international justice for the perpetrators.

"It is tragic that Russia has used the privilege entrusted to it... to frustrate international peace and security," said US ambassador Samantha Power.

"The United States believes firmly that those who carried out this unspeakable crime cannot remain unnamed and unpunished," Power added.

"There cannot and will not be impunity."

- 'Veto compounds atrocity' -

Thirty-nine Australians perished on board MH17. The country's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop attended the Council vote in person, delivering a stinging rebuke on Russia.

"In a world with an increasing number of violent terrorist groups and other non-state actors... it is inconceivable that the Security Council would now walk away from holding to account those who brought down a commercial airplane," she said.

"The veto only compounds the atrocity," Bishop said.

"Excuses and obfuscation by the Russian Federation should be treated with the utmost disdain."

She pledged to the families and friends of the victims that "Australia will continue to do everything we can to ensure the perpetrators of this barbaric act are held to account."

She added that Australia and other members of the joint investigation team would decide on an "alternative prosecution mechanism to ensure that truth does prevail and those responsible for this unspeakable act will be brought to justice."

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott echoed his foreign minister's remarks, calling Russia's actions "outrageous."

"By its actions, Russia has shown complete disregard for the families' right to know who was responsible and to see these criminals face justice," he said in a statement.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders expressed his "deep, deep disappointment" and said his thoughts went out to the families of the victims who had placed hope in the creation of a tribunal.

Most of the passengers on the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were Dutch.

The flight was downed over rebel-held east Ukraine during heavy fighting between Kiev's armed forces and pro-Russian separatists.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin accused Russia point blank. "There can be no reason to oppose this unless you are a perpetrator yourself," he said.

"This tribunal is about the truth. If you are afraid of truth you are definitely on the wrong side."

Before the vote, Malaysia's transport minister appealed to the Council to adopt the resolution and said a tribunal would be best placed to "deliver justice to the families of the victims."

"All those who travel by air will be more at risk if the perpetrators are not held to account," Liow Tiong Lai said.

 

[PressToTeleport]

 

[PressToTeleport]

MH17: Relatives of victims invited to hear the official cause of the crash first

Date August 27, 2015 - 9:27PM
Nick Miller

Making sense of the pieces: Plane debris in eastern Ukraine, July, 2014. Photo: Kate Geraghty

Next month relatives of the MH17 victims will receive an invitation to a private meeting, where they will learn the official cause of their loved ones' death.

The Dutch Safety Board, which is investigating the cause of last year's tragedy, announced on Thursday that it will publish its final report on 13 October.

Searching for the truth: Investigators at the MH17 crash site. Photo: Kate Geraghty

However a few hours before the publication, the relatives will be told the conclusions of the international team of investigators in a "closed information meeting" in the Netherlands.

Invitations to the information session will be sent out next month, containing the location and time.

DSB spokeswoman Sara Vernooij​ said the DSB could not help overseas relatives travel to the meeting: if they needed financial or other travel assistance it would be up to countries such as Australia and Malaysia.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine's east on July 17, 2014, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members aboard – including 39 people who called Australia home.

The DSB's report is expected to cover the cause of the crash and will also examine whether the plane should not have been flying over that part of Ukraine during a civil war.

Some details of a draft version of the report have already leaked: in July CNN said the draft report pointed to pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine having shot down the plane using a BUK missile launched from a village under their control.

The DSB's report will be the first of several into the crash – there is also a Joint Investigation Team conducting a criminal investigation into whether any person or group was responsible for the crash.

 

[Cylon]

Who shot it down? Families brace for final MH17 air crash report

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 11 October, 2015, 7:09pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 11 October, 2015, 7:09pm

Agence France-Presse in The Hague

The wreckage of MH17 will be transferred to the International MH17 Commission. Photo: EPA

International investigators will on Tuesday release their final report into the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over war-torn Ukraine, but the burning question of who was to blame will remain unresolved.

The Dutch Safety Board (OVV), leading a team of international investigators since the Boeing 777 went down last year, will release the report at the Gilze-Rijen air force base in southern Netherlands.

All 298 people on board - most of them Dutch - including the 15 crew members died when the routine flight between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur was brought down, possibly by a missile, during heavy fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists.

Tuesday’s report - 15 months after the July 17, 2014 crash - will focus on four subjects, the Dutch board said in a statement.

Ukrainian workers at the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 in 2014. Photo: 2014

“The cause of the crash; the issue of flying over conflict areas; the question why Dutch... relatives of victims had to wait two to four days before receiving confirmation from the Dutch authorities that their loved ones were on board; and lastly, the question as to what extent the occupants of flight MH17 were conscious of the crash.”

But as the board has pointed out many times, it will not assign blame nor say who pulled the trigger.

“It is the purpose of the criminal investigation to answer those (questions),” it said.

Kiev and the West however have pointed the finger at the separatists, charging they may have used a BUK surface-to-air missile supplied by Russia to blow the plane from the sky.

A Buk mobile missile system. Photo: Reuters

The Russian maker of the BUK missile said it too will hold a press conference in Moscow to explain the “real reasons” for the disaster after holding an “experiment” that entailed detonating a missile next to a plane.

Fragments of a Russian-made BUK were found at the crash site earlier this year. But Moscow denies involvement and instead has accused Ukraine’s military of being behind the tragedy.

The downing of MH17 further strained relations between Russia and the West, already at their lowest ebb since the Cold War due to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The United Nations estimates some 8,000 people have been killed and 18,000 others have been wounded since clashes erupted there in April 2014.

The report’s release also comes amid heightened concern over Moscow’s role in Syria, where it has launched air strikes which it says are aimed at routing jihadists.

Relatives of the victims, who in July marked the first anniversary of the crash with an emotional gathering attended by over 2,000 people, said they believed the final report will at least answer some questions.

They will also for the first time be confronted with the harrowing sight of a partial reconstruction of the doomed plane made from pieces of wreckage brought back from the crash site.

“The report will throw new light onto the case as we know it at the moment,” said Dennis Schouten, chairman of the MH17 Air Disaster Foundation.

Relatives understand that the criminal probe has not yet been completed to answer who was behind the probable firing of the missile, he said.

“That must come from the criminal probe and has to be proved properly,” said Schouten.

But with the release of the report “the net is certainly drawing a little closer,” he added.

“Is there more than one guilty party? The airlines and their flight routes? So many questions remain.”

Both the Russian and Ukrainian militaries have BUK missiles in their arsenal, and the system’s Russian manufacturer said in June that based on publicly available photographs of the wreckage the plane was likely shot down by one of its projectiles.

But Russia in July vetoed a bid at the UN Security Council to set up an international tribunal to try those behind the downing of the aircraft.

Countries involved in that bid are now looking at other means to carry out a prosecution, although no suspects have yet been publicly identified.

 

[Tehtarik]

Think will be difficult to pin down the perpetrators may the dead rest in peace

 

[Leongsam]

Think will be difficult to pin down the perpetrators may the dead rest in peace

Who cares who did it. What difference does it make. Nailing the culprits won't bring anyone back to life.

 

[Cylon]

Final report out soon on downing of MH17

Lloyd Jones, AAP Europe Correspondent
October 13, 2015, 4:53 pm

Dutch investigators are set to release their final report into what caused the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 in Ukraine on July 17, 2014, but not who is to blame for the tragedy.

Thirty-eight Australian citizens and residents were among the 298 killed when MH17 was blown out of the sky on a regular flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

At an air base in the southern Netherlands on Tuesday, the Dutch Safety Board will release its final report into the cause of the crash in front of many relatives of the victims.

The board will also unveil part of the plane's cockpit and business class section reconstructed from the wreckage.

The report will also address the issue of airlines flying over conflict areas and to what extent people on the plane were aware of what was happening when it was hit.

The Boeing 777 was flying above heavy fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists.

International investigators are expected to confirm in their final report that a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile brought the plane down.

The safety board, which is the Dutch transport watchdog, has made clear it is not concerned with blame or liability as those are matters for the criminal investigation to answer.

The Joint Investigation Team has been probing the crash for 15 months and has representatives from the Netherlands, Ukraine, Australia, Malaysia and Belgium - the countries most affected by the crash.

Dutch prosecutors confirmed in August that investigators had examined seven "considerable fragments of some size ... probably from a BUK (surface-to-air) missile system" recovered from the crash site.

Kiev and the West have accused pro-Russian rebels of shooting down the plane, possibly with a BUK missile supplied by Russia.

Moscow and the rebels deny any responsibility and point the finger at Ukraine's military.

 

[singveld]

so sad, so many people to blame CIA, Russia, Malaysian airlines, and weather but no one want to down that plane, but so many end their life during the journey.

 

[Cylon]

MH17 downed by warhead fired in Ukraine, but Russia and West still at odds over who pulled the trigger

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 13 October, 2015, 9:12pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 14 October, 2015, 12:06am

The Washington Post

A view of the rebuilt cockpit section of the rebuilt fuselage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, just before the Dutch report was released on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

The Dutch Safety Board announced its findings Tuesday that a Buk missile brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in mid-2014.

But the final report isn’t expected to bring closure: Russia and the West will continue to wrangle over who is to blame.

In its announcement, the board noted that Ukraine should have closed off its airspace to civilian aircraft and said that the Boeing 777, carrying 298 people, should not have been flying over a war zone.

Tjibbe Joustra (left) head of the Dutch Safety Board, presents the board’s final report into what caused Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 to break up high over Eastern Ukraine last year, killing all 298 people on board. Photo: AP

On July 17, 2014, the Malaysian jetliner flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur broke apart, felled by a missile, over southeast Ukraine, where pro-government and separatist fighters were locked in bloody fighting.

Western officials and experts blamed separatist forces, who they said were being aided by the Russian military.

Watch: MH17 crash - Dutch Safety Board animation 'shows path of missile'



Russia responded by blaming the West, saying that Ukraine’s army may have shot down the plane and Ukraine’s government was complicit in the passengers’ deaths for allowing a jetliner to fly through a war zone.

Tuesday’s report by the Dutch Safety Board said that the plane was downed by a Buk SA-11 surface-to-air missile. This will discredit one Russian theory, that the passenger plane was shot down by a Ukrainian air force jet. But both the Russian and Ukrainian armies have Buk missile systems, and Russian officials can and probably will continue to argue that the Ukrainian army was behind the attack on the plane.

Pro-Russian rebels inspect a damaged tank at the destroyed International Airport in Donetsk on Tuesday, where heavy fighting continued for over 240 days until January. Photo: EPA

To further prove that point, the Russian weapons manufacturer Almaz-Antey has reportedly even blown up a decommissioned Boeing 777 using a Buk missile in a controlled experiment. The goal of the experiment was to show that only the antiquated version of the Buk missile used by Ukraine, and not the modern version used by the Russian military, could have caused the damage done to MH17.

Earlier, the company had complained that its expertise was not being considered by Dutch investigators.

Tuesday’s report is the first official finding by Dutch investigators since they announced that MH17 had been penetrated by "a large number of high-energy objects", indicating shrapnel from a missile, in September 2014. A Dutch broadcaster, NOS, citing a Ukrainian official earlier attached to the investigation, said that pieces of shrapnel from a Buk missile had been found in the bodies of the passengers.

A view of the cockpit section of the rebuilt fuselage. Photo: EPA

The Dutch Safety Board’s goal was to answer what, and not who, caused the crash. It was also charged with answering why civilian planes were flying over the conflict area, where separatist forces had brought down more than a dozen Ukrainian aircraft and helicopters in the weeks before the MH17 crash.

A Dutch police investigation, which is expected to finger a culprit, is also underway. Investigators released an appeal for witnesses who saw a Buk missile system being hauled on a trailer in separatist-held Ukraine shortly before and after the attack on MH17. The video said that a missile fired from separatist-held territory was the "main version of the investigation," although others are being considered.

A military policeman stands guard in the reconstructed MH17 airplane after the presentation of the final report into the crash. Photo: Reuters

The video’s version of events relied heavily on two sources: open-source imagery of a Buk system in separatist-held Ukraine, much of which has been compiled here by the amateur investigative Web site Bellingcat, and audio from tapped telephone conversations between separatist fighters released by the Ukrainian government. The Russian government television station RT (formerly Russia Today) released reports last week attacking Bellingcat and the open source evidence that separatist forces had a Buk missile system.

Dutch investigators face one other hurdle: finding a venue to bring the accused to justice. In July, Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have established an international criminal tribunal to investigate the MH17 attack. Russian U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his country vetoed the resolution because it was politically motivated. Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine may set up an independent tribunal instead, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said last month.

 

[Cylon]

Malaysia vows to punish 'trigger-happy criminals' who downed MH17

AFP
October 14, 2015, 1:53 am

Malaysia vowed on Tuesday to seek the prosecution of the "trigger-happy criminals" who downed flight MH17, after a Dutch-led investigation said it was shot down by a missile fired from war-torn eastern Ukraine.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said in a statement that as a party to the investigation "Malaysia remains single-minded in our pursuit of decisive action that will lead to prosecution of the trigger-happy criminals."

Prime Minister Najib Razak also released a statement vowing that his government would continue to press for justice "until those behind this heinous act are made to pay for their crimes."

In a highly anticipated announcement, the chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, Tjibbe Joustra, told a press conference in the Netherlands that the Malaysia Airlines plane was likely downed by a missile fired from a Russian BUK surface-to-air missile system.

Maps shown to reporters also indicated the missile was believed to have been fired from territory held by pro-Russian separatists.

All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch citizens, were killed.

The Dutch Safety Board, which led the international team of investigators, has stressed that its mandate was not to determine who pulled the trigger, amid a separate criminal probe by Dutch prosecutors.

 

[Cylon]

Russia 'tried to hack MH17 inquiry system'

AFP
October 24, 2015, 1:37 am



Video Russia Calls for New Probe in MH17 Investigation

The Hague (AFP) - Russian spies likely tried to hack into the Dutch Safety Board's computer systems to access a sensitive final report into the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine, experts said Friday.

The cyberattacks were revealed by security experts Trend Micro which blamed a shadowy group dubbed Operation Pawn Storm, "an active economic and political cyber-espionage operation" that has targeted the White House and NATO in the past.

A spokeswoman for the Dutch board, which led the investigation into how Malaysia Airlines flight came down in July 2014 over war-torn Ukraine, confirmed the board had detected the attacks.

But there was "no evidence" that anyone "was successful in the attempt," spokeswoman Sara Vernooij told AFP.

She declined however to reveal "how and by whom" the attacks were carried out.

Trend Micro Friday blamed Operation Pawn Storm for a "cyber-espionage operation before and after" the publication on October 13 of the board's detailed report.

The "coordinated attack from several sides was launched to gain unauthorised access to sensitive material of the investigation conducted by Dutch, Malaysian, Australian, Belgian, and Ukrainian authorities," the Tokyo-based company said in a statement.

Trend Micro said there were "Russian spies behind Pawn Storm" which has been active since 2007 and is "an effort to attack major political targets, especially in the Ukraine".

The group, which has also targeted Russian dissidents and the Ukrainian government, could "be acting in the behest of parties invested in the Ukraine matter, or simply an outlier group acting on its own".

The Dutch-led investigators concluded that flight MH17 was shot down on by a Russian-made BUK missile fired from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

All 298 people on board, most of them Dutch nationals, were killed when the Boeing 777 was blown up en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

But the findings triggered protests from Moscow, which maintains the BUK missile was fired by the Ukrainian military, and not by pro-Russian separatists battling to breakaway from Kiev.

Trend Micro said that on September 28, a fake server was set up to mimic the Dutch Safety Board's safe file transfer protocol server, and on October 14 a false VPN access was also created.

On September 29, a fake Outlook web mail server was also established targeting one of the board's partners.

The aim was to "execute phishing attacks in order to collect credentials from the personnel of the Safety Board which could give Pawn Storm unauthorised access to the SFTP and VPN servers."

Pawn Storm is also believed to have been behind a cyberattack on France's TV5Monde television when people, claiming to represent the Islamic State group, shut down transmissions and placed jihadist messages on the station's website.

 

[ChaoPappyPoodle]

Cheap Mats trying to save money by flying into war zone. Sue the corrupted Muslims until they declare Islam a failed ideology.

 

[Cylon]

MH17 families plan Dutch memorial for victims

AFP
November 8, 2015, 7:25 am

The Hague (AFP) - The families who lost loved ones in the shooting down of flight MH17 Saturday began voting on where to build a national memorial in the Netherlands to honour the dead.

Three proposals were unveiled Saturday for monuments to remember the 298 people, mostly Dutch nationals, killed in the 2014 air disaster.

Dutch-led investigators concluded last month that the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down on by a Russian-made BUK missile fired from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

All those on board were killed when the Boeing 777 was blown up en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

"The Foundation MH17 aviation disaster considers that it is important that the choice of location of the monument is supported by the relatives," the families support group said in a statement.

Three proposals designed by relatives themselves have been put forward -- one at The Hague, one close to Schipol airport where the victims boarded the doomed flight and then in Eindhoven where the bodies were brought back to the Netherlands.

In the Hague, the monument would consist of 10 "crumbled" elements. One central piece would be placed behind the renowned Peace Palace, and "in the area of the nine 'grieving' embassies one single element. This allows the countries to be connected to each other."

In Eindhoven there would be a memorial "at the place where the victims have been carried out of the planes."

The third proposal is to plant a tree for each of the dead at a park close to Schipol airport "where the victims boarded the plane and became a group," the foundation said in its statement.

The designers for the living tree memorial at Schipol-Vijfhuizen park said on their website: "We wanted to create a place where memories can live on, a place where victims can be remembered and cherished by their loved ones."

"So the idea of a living forest monument was born," they said, adding that "a tree symbolises hope and the future in many cultures, a strong symbol." The living forest plan can be seen on the website treesformh17.org.

Planted in the shape of a ribbon, the forest would be surrounded by a ring of sunflowers, which blossom during the month of July and "which would radiate a golden glow."

The relatives have until November 15 to vote for the memorial of their choice.

It is hoped that a decision can be revealed in December, and work can then start immediately.

 

[Cylon]

MH17 victims to get Dutch memorial at Schiphol

AFP
November 27, 2015, 7:41 am

The Hague (AFP) - A forest is to be planted in a park close to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport to commemorate the victims of downed flight MH17, the organisation representing victims' families announced Thursday.

The national monument will comprise 298 trees, one for each of the victims of the ill-fated flight, the MH17 Disaster Foundation said in a statement.

"The next-of-kin have expressed the preference to place the national memorial in Vijfhuizen" near Schiphol, the foundation said.

The families could vote for three locations with more than half preferring the park to other possible sites in The Hague and the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven.

The trees will form a giant green ribbon, a symbol worn by the relatives to commemorate the July 17, 2014 disaster, with an amphitheatre at the centre.

Three proposals were unveiled earlier this month for monuments to honour the victims, mostly Dutch nationals, killed when the plane came down in eastern Ukraine.

A majority of relatives voted for the park project as Schiphol "is the place where the victims boarded the plane for the last time," Dutch media reported.

The trees will be lit up at night and will be surrounded by sunflowers in bloom every year on July 17, which will radiate in a "golden glow" said the National Forest Fund foundation, which designed the project.

"We had a wish to make this shared loss visible by creating a living monument," it said on its website.

"We wanted to create a place where memories can live on, a place where victims can be remembered and cherished by their loved ones."

Dutch-led investigators concluded last month that the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down by a Russian-made BUK missile fired from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine.

All those on board died when the Boeing 777 was blown out of the sky en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

The monument's unveiling is planned for July 17, 2017.

Visiting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday thanked Dutch investigators who led the inquiry into the disaster.

After meeting with Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Poroshenko said a separate criminal investigation into the crash was making progress.

"I hope in the middle of December, at least before the end of the year, we will have important information with the evidence about who... is responsible for this disastrous terroristic attack," he said.

Rutte vowed investigators were "working day and night" to be able to pinpoint exactly who was to blame for the disaster.

 

[Cylon]

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/1950441/law-firm-names-russia-and-putin-mh17-compensation-claim-demands-10

 

[Cylon]

Families of MH17 crew file suit against Malaysia Airlines

AFP on June 2, 2016, 8:59 pm

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Families of six Malaysia Airlines crew members who were killed when flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine nearly two years ago filed a lawsuit Thursday blaming the carrier for the tragedy.

The suit accuses the airline of negligence and breach of contract and is believed to be the first filed against the company over the 2014 disaster, said Balan Nair, a lawyer representing families of the six Malaysian crew members.

It comes two weeks after a suit by 33 next-of-kin from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia was filed against Russia and President Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights.

All 298 passengers and crew -- the majority of them Dutch -- died when the Boeing 777 was hit by a Russian-made BUK anti-aircraft missile over war-torn eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

Thursday's filing in Malaysia blames the airline for the tragedy, saying it "dispatched and executed the MH17 flight over an area known to be under armed conflict, which posed an unreasonable risk of harm and death".

Balan did not give a compensation amount being sought, saying that would be decided by the courts.

He said the airline had offered to settle for an undisclosed amount, but families rejected the proposed sum. He did not rule out an eventual out-of-court settlement.

Malaysia Airlines meanwhile said it is yet to be served with the mentioned suits and that the MH17 flight route complied with International Civil Aviation Organisation regulations.

Under the 1999 Montreal Convention, next-of-kin have until the second anniversary of an air disaster to file lawsuits against the carrier involved.

Chong Seng See, whose sister Chong Yee Pheng is one of the six crew members mentioned in the suit, said in a statement issued by his lawyers that families have endured deep pain due to the "horrific manner" of their loved ones' deaths.

MH17 had a total crew of 15.

Malaysia Airlines already is facing lawsuits by scores of families over the disappearance of MH370 and could face legal action from more MH17 next-of-kin.

MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 -- just four months before the MH17 tragedy -- with 239 passengers and crew aboard.

Small pieces of wreckage found on Indian Ocean islands and the east African coast have confirmed MH370 went down, but no crash site has been located and the reasons for the plane's disappearance remain a baffling mystery.

 

[Cylon]

MH17 investigation at 'advanced stage'

By Thomas Escritt - AAP on June 4, 2016, 8:54 am

Prosecutors conducting the criminal investigation into the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine two years ago say it is at "a very advanced stage" and that they would present their conclusions after the summer.

In a statement, prosecutors on Friday said they had made "several requests" for legal assistance from countries involved in the case, but were still waiting for information from Russia about the Buk missile that is believed to have brought down the Malaysian airliner, killing 298 people.

They said the final report would detail the nature of the weapon used and the exact location from which it was fired.

The airliner crashed in territory held by Moscow-backed rebels against the Kiev government.

Two thirds of the airliner's passengers were Dutch, and there were also 38 Australians on board.

The disaster prompted Europe and the United States to level sanctions against Russia and brought east-west tensions to their highest pitch in decades.

The investigators, from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine, said they would present their conclusions to a court or criminal tribunal.

Their governments have pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice, if necessary by setting up an international tribunal.

Russia cast its Security Council veto to block a motion to set up a United Nations-backed tribunal to try the case.

 

[Cylon]

MH17 criminal probe results due within months

AFP on June 4, 2016, 7:29 pm

The Hague (AFP) - Initial results from a criminal inquiry into the downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight over war-torn eastern Ukraine nearly two years ago will be available within months, Dutch prosecutors have said.

The results are expected to shed light on the exact type of missile used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board, and exactly where it was fired from.

"After this summer, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) will present the first results of the criminal investigation into the crash of flight MH17," the public prosecutor said in a statement released late Friday.

"It concerns the weapon which was used to shoot down the aircraft and the exact launch site of the weapon," it said, noting that the inquiry was at "a very advanced stage".

However, investigators on the Dutch-led team, which includes experts from Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine, were still awaiting information from Moscow about BUK missile installations, it said, noting that they were expecting an answer "within two months".

In October, an international inquiry concluded that the Boeing 777, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile fired from a zone held by pro-Russian separatists, but stopped short of saying who was responsible.

Results of the latest investigation will not be published in a report, however, but will be included in a criminal file "which is intended for the hearing of the case in a court or a tribunal," the prosecutor said, indicating this was normal procedure in criminal cases.

Earlier this week, families of six Malaysian crew members filed suit against the airline for negligence and breach of contract, their lawyer said, and the carrier could also face similar action from more MH17 next-of-kin over loss of earnings as well as compensation for the "psychological" trauma of losing loved ones.

Last month, relatives of victims from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia launched legal action against Russia and its President Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Documents filed by their lawyers allege that Moscow has worked to keep its involvement in the plane disaster hidden.

 

[Cylon]

MH17 criminal probe out next month, say Dutch prosecutors

AFP on August 19, 2016, 9:17 pm

The Hague (AFP) - Initial results from a criminal probe into the downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over war-torn Ukraine two years ago will be revealed next month, Dutch prosecutors said Friday.

The results are expected to shed light on the exact type of missile used to shoot down the jetliner on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board, and exactly where it was fired from.

"We have informed victims' relatives that we will have a new meeting on September 28 where the results of the criminal investigation will be unveiled," said Wim de Bruin, spokesman for the Dutch public prosecutor's office.

The information specifically relates to "which weapon was used and from where it was fired," said De Bruin, whose office is leading an international team of investigators.

Next month's meeting, to be held in Nieuwegein outside Utrecht in central Netherlands, will be open to relatives only in the morning, followed by a press conference in the afternoon, De Bruin said.

Relatives last month marked the two-year anniversary of the incident when the Boeing 777 was shot down during a routine flight between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur. The majority of those on board were Dutch citizens.

An international inquiry concluded last October that the plane was downed by a Russian-made BUK missile fired from a zone held by pro-Russian separatists, but stopped short of saying who was responsible.

Separatist authorities deny responsibility for the disaster, saying Ukrainian forces were responsible for the attack.

The European Union in early July formally extended damaging economic sanctions against Russia by six months due to lack of progress in resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine.