By Robert Wall and Andy Pasztor 

Investigators probing the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine said high-energy objects struck the Boeing Co. 777 and caused the plane to break apart in midair, consistent with the now widely-held view the plane was brought down by a sophisticated antiaircraft weapon.

Such a weapon would have detonated near the plane, showering it with shrapnel at close range, but the investigators' preliminary report came to few new conclusions, other than definitively stating the plane was shot down.

With little access to the crash site, investigators relied on analysis of the plane's data and cockpit recorders, photographs of the wreckage and other external sources. Investigators wrote that they found no technical faults with the plane, and no sign the pilots sent a distress call.

What is still unknown--and what aircraft accident investigators won't be able to clear up--is who fired the missile. Ukraine has accused Russian-backed militants operating in the area, while rebels have suggested Ukrainian forces were responsible. The investigators didn't find any Ukrainian fighter planes in the area to fire such a missile.

Separate from the air-accident investigation, Dutch officials have opened a criminal investigation into the presumed shootdown, which killed all 298 passengers and crew aboard, including 193 Dutch citizens. Dutch prosecutors are gathering evidence and hope to file criminal charges in Dutch courts.

Heavy fighting in the area of the crash site and sometimes uncooperative rebels holding the territory kept investigators mostly away from the debris and other forensic evidence crucial for such a probe. Rebel forces failed to seal off the site in the immediate aftermath of the crash. Their early, haphazard efforts recovering bodies, picking through wreckage and allowing unfettered access to the site to journalists and others all would have degraded the value of any detailed forensic analysis.

Still, investigators tried several times to gain access to the crash. But those efforts were repeatedly aborted for security reasons.

Instead of access to the wreckage itself, investigators said they relied heavily on photographs taken by Ukrainian and Malaysian counterparts in reaching their preliminary findings. The Ukrainian photos were taken during "a number of short visits to the site" over the first four days following the jet's downing.

Investigators also used a report prepared by a small Malaysian investigative team that gained access to the site before the Dutch government was given primary responsibility for the probe.

The Dutch Safety Board took the lead role in the probe because of the large number of Dutch citizens killed. It still intends to visit the site of the wreckage "whenever it is possible to safely conduct further investigation," according to the report.

Investigators did have possession of the plane's black boxes--devices used to record and store data and cockpit information--and were able to analyze a host of external information, including radio communication, radar and other flight data.

The 34-page report is the first official publication on the cause of the tragedy. The probe also involves representatives from the U.S., U.K. and International Civil Aviation Organization.

The plane's pilots' last communication with air-traffic controls, involving routine acknowledgment of a route change, occurred just a few seconds before the onboard recorders stopped working.

The Boeing 777 was brought down on July 17 while flying at 33,000 feet from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

The report says three other jetliners flew over the same general airspace around the time Flight 17 went down, but those crews weren't able to provide investigators with any relevant information.

Details of air-traffic control transmissions reveal that personnel at a Ukraine radar facility tried in vain for some 16 minutes to contact Flight 17. Russian controllers had expected the plane to contact them via radio just as its crew stopped communicating. Checking radar images, a Russian controller told a Ukrainian counterpart: "It seems that its target started falling apart." Then the Russian controller said, "we see nothing."

Oleg Storchevoi, deputy head of Rosaviatsia, Russia's air-safety regulator, told state television Tuesday that investigators would need to do more work to ascertain the cause of the crash and said the probe had lost valuable time.

Separatist leaders reiterated Tuesday their denials of any involvement in the crash, saying the report confirmed their claims that the plane was downed by Kiev's forces in an effort to discredit the rebels and their supporters in Russia.

The accident report didn't support some claims by Russia state media that a Ukrainian combat plane was in the area and could have shot down Flight 17. Radar data showed, instead, there were only a few other airlines in the area at the time, the report found.

Accident investigators have said they would not seek to establish culpability. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Saturday said intelligence reports on the downing of the plane are "pretty conclusive."

The Dutch-led group said the jetliner was "pierced in numerous" places. "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," the Dutch Safety Board said.

The objects that struck the plane are likely to have led to a loss of structural integrity of the Boeing 777 and an in-flight break up, the board said. "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," it said in the report.

Before it was hit, the jet was flying at cruise power and "all indications regarding the operation of the engines were normal," according to the report.

The final report is due to be published within a year of the accident, the Dutch Safety Board said, adding it expected more evidence to become available.

An interim report is typically issued a month after a plane crashes, but the Flight 17 report was delayed because of the lack of access to the site.

Britain's Air Accident Investigations Branch extracted information from the plane's black boxes. The units were damaged in the crash but still contained useful information. The devices, that were in the hands of the rebels for days before being turned over, weren't tampered with, the Dutch Safety Board said. Both recording devices cut off at the same time indicating power was cut instantaneously.

Accident investigators said a final report would explore why Flight 17 was cleared to fly through airspace where days earlier a military transport plane flying at lower altitude was shot down. Ukraine had imposed a limited flight ban in the wake of the downing of the military plane, though the Malaysia Airlines jet traveled at an altitude declared safe and in airspace used by other carriers.

Margaret Coker and Gregory L. White contributed to this article.

Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com and Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com

Boeing (NYSE:BA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024 Click Here for more Boeing Charts.
Boeing (NYSE:BA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024 Click Here for more Boeing Charts.