Dutch experts will today publish the first report into what caused Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 to crash in the Ukraine in July, but it will not attribute any blame for the downing of the aircraft.
Ukraine’s government and several Western leaders say there is strong evidence that pro-Russian separatists shot down the Boeing 777, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, with an anti-aircraft system known as Buk, killing all 298 people on board, but Russia has denied supplying any missiles or weapons to the rebels.
The Dutch Safety Board is leading an international probe to try to piece together information from flight data recorders, air traffic control, satellite images and photos from the scene to try to work out what happened.
While it is not the final report into the crash, it is significant because it will be the first official account of what happened, says the BBC.
Experts from the UK, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, the US, Ukraine and Russia are collaborating on the case.
The board says it expects the final report to be published within a year. Ten Britons were among the passengers killed.
