Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 crashed as a result of a Russian-made 9M38 Buk missile, the Dutch Safety Board says.
The
missile hit the front left of the plane, as a result of which part of
the plane broke off, it said in a final report into the disaster.
The
West and Ukraine say Russian-backed rebels brought down the Boeing 777.
But Russia claims a missile was fired from Ukrainian-controlled
territory.
The report will not apportion blame but says airspace should have been closed.
Relatives of some of the 298 people who died over Ukraine in 2014 have been told victims would have lost consciousness almost immediately.
The
plane - flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur - crashed in rebel-held
eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014 at the height of the conflict between
government troops and the pro-Russian separatists.
Among the victims were 196 Dutch nationals and 10 Britons. Click here for minute-by-minute updates
Four questions
The Dutch Safety Board presented its findings first to the victims'
relatives before briefing reporters at the Gilze-Rijen military base in
the Netherlands.
The board showed parts of the aircraft that have been brought back from the rebel-held Donetsk region and reconstructed.
The report looks at four key issues:
what caused the plane to disintegrate in mid-air
why it was flying over the conflict region
why some relatives had to wait four days before receiving official confirmation that their loved ones were on board
to what extent passengers and crew were aware of what was happening in the final moments.
Read more
Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash - In-depth report What we know - What happened on on 17 July 2014 A reporter's story - Searching for truth at the crash site Remembering the victims - Shared sadness and sunflowers
Barry
Sweeney, father of British crash victim Liam Sweeney, earlier told the
BBC that he had been told it appeared a missile had struck the cockpit
first - killing all three crew inside and leaving fragments inside their
bodies.
He said the cockpit then appeared to have broken off.
But
he and other relatives briefed on the report say they were told it was
extremely unlikely that anyone on board had any notion of what was
happening.
The board does not have the authority to apportion blame, under the rules governing international flight crash investigations.
A separate Dutch-led criminal investigation is expected to publish its findings in several months' time.
Dutch
Safety Board president Djibbe Joustra suggested that the aircraft was
most likely brought down by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile -
which experts say both Russian and Ukrainian armies possess.
The
government in Ukraine and several Western officials have said the
missile was brought from Russia and launched from the rebel-held part of
Ukraine.
Report 'wrong'
Earlier
on Tuesday, Russian officials from Almaz-Antey - the state firm which
manufactures Buk missiles - once again rejected those accusations.
During
a presentation timed to pre-empt the Dutch report, officials said the
evidence suggested the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air Buk
missile fired by Ukrainian forces.
Media captionSilene Fredriksz's 23-year-old son Bryce and his girlfriend Daisy Oehlers died on flight MH17Using video footage of their own mock-up of shrapnel hitting
the fuselage of an aircraft, the officials said trajectory evidence
showed the missile had been fired from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
They argued the missile used was a decades-old model no longer in use in
the Russian arsenal.
Russia says Dutch investigators have not taken account of its findings.
In
July, Russia vetoed a draft resolution at the UN Security Council to
set up an international tribunal into the MH17 air disaster.
President Vladimir Putin said at the time the establishment of such a tribunal would be "premature" and "counterproductive".
Image caption
Parts of the plane were found 8km (5 miles) from the main debris site
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