Russia’s aviation agency admits MH17 may have been downed by Buk-M1 missile

MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/. Russia’s Almaz-Antey Concern’s report on the MH17 crash that states that the passenger plane was shot down from the Buk-M1 air defense missile system is one of possible explanations, Rosaviation federal agency deputy head Oleg Storchevoy said on Thursday.

"The research conducted by the Almaz-Antey Concern is not a confirmation that the Boeing was shot down by a missile from the Buk-M1 air defense system, but rather one of possible explanations of what happened, other possible causes are not ruled out," Storchevoy said.

The deputy head added that numerous eyewitnesses stated that they saw a military aircraft at the crash site on the day of the tragedy. He also reminded that Russian military experts said in their report that the plane was shot down by an air-to-air missile. "Calculations in the document are very accurate, it is obvious that people [authors of the report] have extensive experience in investigating disasters," Storchevoy noted.

Mikhail Malyshevsky, an adviser to the chief designer of Almaz-Antey Concern said last month that the Malaysian aircraft above Ukraine was downed by an air defense missile, most likely 9M38M1 of the Buk-M1 air defense system. In turn, Almaz-Antey Director General Yan Novikov recalled that the missile was discontinued in Russia in 1999.

Almaz-Antey experts said the missile was launched from an area south of the locality of Zaroshchenskoye in Ukraine, while analysis did not confirm the version that the missile was launched from Snezhnoye. "For experimental integrity, we can’t say what side owned the missile," he said.

On July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger airliner on flight MH17 from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. Most passengers - 193 people - were Dutch nationals.