Berlin - Dutch prosecutors investigating the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on the Ukrainian territory believe the aircraft might have been shot down from the air, but that a ground-to-air missile attack is more likely, a senior prosecutor said in a German media interview.
In an interview published by German newsmagazine Der Spiegel on Oct. 27, senior Dutch prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said that it is early to say what was the final reason of the airplane crash because of the lack of materials, which can’t prove which of the sides are involved into the catastrophe on the east of Ukraine.
“Based on the information available, a shooting-down by a ground-to-air missile is the most likely scenario, but we aren’t closing our eyes to the possibility that it could have happened differently,” Der Spiegel quoted the chief prosecutor as saying.
Among another versions, which have been initially considered by the investigators, were accident, terrorist attack, ground-to-air missile attack and shooting down by another plane,”
In the days after the crash, the United States said it had evidence proving that the aircraft was brought down by a ground-to-air missile fired by Russian-backed forces occupying the area in eastern Ukraine where its wreckage now lies.
An interim report issued by the Dutch Safety Board, which investigates air crashes, listed several passenger jets in flight MH17’s vicinity, but no military aircraft that would have been capable of shooting it down.
The fully loaded Boeing 777 airliner crashed over eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 people on board, more than two-thirds of whom were Dutch citizens.
