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