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BEIJING, Oct. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- It has been about 15 months since Flight MH17 crashed. Let's have a closer look at details on the disaster and the investigation. Flight MH17 crashed over eastern Ukraine on July 17th, 2014, as heavy fighting raged between Ukrainian government troops and rebels. It was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia.
All 298 people aboard, most of them Dutch citizens, were killed. Three days later, a Dutch-led international investigation team was established to find out what caused the disaster.
Although the two black boxes were found and submitted to the team, the investigation did not go well, due to fighting at the site. Four investigators finally entered the crash site on July 31st, two weeks after the disaster where they searched for victims' bodies and evidence.
On September 9th, the Dutch Safety Board said the plane was hit by "high-energy objects from outside the aircraft", fuelling speculation that a ground-to-air missile shot down the plane.
But it said it needed more time to investigate and would publish a final report a year later. On April 15th this year, the international search team said they would go to the crash site again, to search for victims' bodies and their private belongings.
On June 3rd, Russia released information of a key witness, Ukrainian citizen Evgeny Agapov, who worked as a mechanic in the Ukrainian Air Force. Agapov said in his testimony that on July 17th, a Ukrainian jet fighter returned to the airfield, its pilot said the plane was "at the wrong time or in the wrong place,” Then in the evening they learned that a passenger Boeing was shot down that day.
Meanwhile, Russian state arms producer Almaz-Antey said, based on photos of the wreckage, a BUK air defense missile made by the company was likely to have been used to bring down MH17. But the company said it was an old version of the missile, no longer used by the Russian military.
Now victims' families say they hope the final report's release will keep up the pressure and lead to the eventual arrest and trial of the culprits.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
