Najib welcomes preliminary report on MH17

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today urged all parties to work closely together to facilitate investigations into the MH17 tragedy and the production of the final report.

He said this following a preliminary report released by the Dutch experts on the MH17 tragedy today which suggests the ill-fated Boeing 777-200 broke up in mid-air after being hit by “high-energy objects”.

“I welcome the preliminary report into the MH17 tragedy, which was a collaborative effort.

“The report confirms that MH17 was flying in unrestricted airspace under the control of local air traffic controllers, and following a route and altitude cleared by air traffic control. The aircraft was fully airworthy with no reported faults, and the crew acted properly.

“The preliminary report suggests that high energy objects penetrated the aircraft and led it to break up mid-air. This leads to the strong suspicion that a surface-to-air missile brought MH17 down, but further investigative work is needed before we can be certain,” said Najib, in a statement today.

Najib said, it is of the utmost importance that the investigation teams gain full and unfettered access to the crash site, in order to recover all human remains, complete their investigation and establish the truth.

“That is why a Malaysian team was sent to Ukraine yesterday. We owe it to the families, who are in our thoughts today,” he said.

The preliminary report which was published today by the Dutch Safety Board, said that there are no indications that the MH17 tragedy was caused by a technical fault, emergency or by actions of the crew.

Chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, Tjibbe Joustra, said more research will be necessary to determine the cause with greater precision.

“The Safety Board believes that additional evidence will become available for investigation in the period ahead.”

“The preliminary report issues the first findings in the ongoing investigation. From this point on, the investigation team will be working towards producing its final report. The Board aims to publish this report within one year of the date of the crash.”

According to the report, the cockpit voice recorder revealed no signs of any technical faults or an emergency situation.

“The flight data recorder registered no aircraft system warnings, and aircraft engine parameters were consistent with normal operation during the flight.

“The radio communications with Ukrainian air traffic control confirm that no emergency call was made by the cockpit crew.

“The final calls by Ukrainian air traffic control made between 13.20:00 and 13.22:02 (UTC) remained unanswered,” the report said.

The report further said that the pattern of damage to the aircraft fuselage and the cockpit is consistent with that which may be expected from a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.

“It’s likely that this damage resulted in a loss of structural integrity of the aircraft, leading to an in-flight break up.

“This also explains the abrupt end to the data registration on the recorders, the simultaneous loss of contact with air traffic control and the aircraft's disappearance from radar.”