By Dannielle Maguire, ABC News
This photograph shows flowers, left by parents of an Australian victim of the crash on a piece of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, near the village of Hrabove (Grabove), in the Donetsk region on July 26, 2014. Photo: AFP / BULENT KILIC
A decade ago, a Malaysia Airlines plane was shot out of the sky and crashed in eastern Ukraine, killing everyone on board.
Amidst the grief, a tense and complicated investigation process unfolded.
Here is a brief summary of the MH17 disaster.
When was the MH17 disaster?
Flight MH17 - a Boeing 777 - was shot down on 17 July 2014.
How many people were killed?
All 298 passengers and crew aboard the plane died.
Of these, 38 were Australian citizens or residents.
What caused the crash?
An investigation led by the Dutch Safety Board concluded that a Russian-made missile brought the plane down.
The missile exploded just above the left side of the cockpit.
The cockpit and a portion of passenger seating broke away from the body of the plane and fell to the ground below.
Much of the rest of the plane landed further east.
Wreckage was found scattered across an area of about 50 square kilometres.
A wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is seen in a field near the village of Grabove, in the region of Donetsk on July 20, 2014. Photo: AFP / BULENT KILIC
While there was significant damage at the crash site, there were no casualities on the ground.
The missile was a 9N314M warhead, launched by a Buk surface-to-air missile system, according to the report.
"No scenario other than a Buk surface-to-air missile can explain this combination of facts," the Dutch Safety Board's summary of the crash says.
What was it like for the people on board?
"The impact was entirely unexpected, which means that people were barely able to comprehend the situation in which they found themselves," a brochure produced by the Dutch Safety Board says.
"There was hardly any time for a conscious response."
Where was the plane shot down?
In a rural area in the Donetsk Oblast of Eastern Ukraine.
Parts of the plane landed among paddocks used for crops like sunflowers, a flower that became an emblem of remembrance for the victims.
The flight departed from Amsterdam in the Netherlands and was headed for Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Why was it shot down?
It is believed Russian separatists mistook it for a Ukrainian military aircraft and did not realise it was a commercial passenger plane.
At the time, Russian-backed rebels were fighting in that part of Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities reported that military aircraft had been shot down on 14 and 16 July.
People light candles in front of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Kyiv on July 17, 2014, to commemorate passengers of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 carrying 295 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur which crashed in eastern Ukraine. Photo: AFP / SERGEI SUPINSKY
Fighting continued in the area, making it difficult for the remains of victims to be returned home or for investigators to examine the wreckage.
Flight recorders were not handed over to Malaysian authorities until 21 July.
Bodies were not flown out of Ukraine until a week after the crash.
And it took about four months until investigators with the Dutch Safety Board were able to recover the wreckage in November.
Why were commercial planes flying over a conflict zone?
Because Ukraine had not closed the airspace, airlines were operating as normal.
On the day MH17 was shot down, 160 flights flew over the area, the Dutch Safety Board's report said.
Here is more from the safety board: "Ukraine had sufficient reason to close the entire airspace over the eastern part of Ukraine as a precaution.
"Instead, on military grounds, flying at lower altitudes was restricted.
"The same turns out to apply to conflict areas elsewhere in the world: it is rare for a state to close its airspace because of an armed conflict."
Who was responsible for the MH17 disaster?
Both the Australian and Dutch governments say Russia is legally responsible for the deaths of the 298 victims.
In January last year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia exercised jurisdiction in eastern Ukraine when flight MH17 was shot down.
The Dutch government expects that court to deliver a judgment on the responsibility Russia bears next year.
Russia has denied any involvement.
Has anyone been convicted?
Three men were convicted of murder by a Dutch court in 2022:
- Igor Girkin, who was commanding armed forces in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic at the time of the attack
- Sergey Dubinskiy, a deputy of Girkin who was leading intelligence activities in the area
- Leonid Kharchenko, who was leading a pro-Russian rebel unit in Donetsk
None of them were accused of actually firing the missile, but the court found they helped get the missile launcher into Ukraine.
Russia refused to cooperate with the court and did not hand them over to Dutch authorities, so the trio were tried in absentia.
- ABC with Reuters
