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In this July 25, 2014 file photo, a Malaysia Airlines crew member places a flower next to candles forming the letters MH17 after a multi-faith prayers for the victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 at Malaysia Airlines Academy in Kelana Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.(Photo: Lai Seng Sin, AP)
The Dutch Safety Board is due to release<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a final report Tuesday into the crash of<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Malaysia Airlines Flight 17<span style="color: Red;">*</span>over Ukraine in July 2014, but will not<span style="color: Red;">*</span>directly say who was responsible.
Western officials have long said the Boeing 777-200 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was hit by a surface-to-air missile over a part of Ukraine where Russian-backed separatists were fighting the government. The suspected weapon was an SA-11 missile known as a Buk.
Russia has denied involvement in the incident on July 17, 2014, that killed all 298 people aboard.
On Tuesday, before the Dutch report's<span style="color: Red;">*</span>release, a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Russian state-controlled missile-maker said<span style="color: Red;">*</span>its own investigation<span style="color: Red;">*</span>contradicts that report's conclusions.
Yan Novikov, the head of the Russian Almaz-Antey concern,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>did not specify what was in the report while speaking at a news conference and did not say whether he had seen it in advance, the Associated Press reported.
The Dutch Safety Board investigated the incident because 193 of the people on board were from the Netherlands. The plane’s voice and data recorders were recovered within days of the crash, but while they could describe what happened to the plane, they won't say<span style="color: Red;">*</span>who fired the missile or why.
USA TODAY
What caused Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster? We'll know more Tuesday
Ukrainian authorities ordered commercial planes to fly at least 32,000 feet high, after an AN-26 military transport aircraft was shot down at 21,000 feet just three days before the Malaysia flight. The Malaysia plane was reportedly flying at 33,000 feet.
Wreckage also helped investigators piece together what happened. But investigators found it difficult to reach the crash site and gather evidence because fighting continued in the area.
In this July 17, 2014 file photo people walk amongst the debris of Malaysia Airlines flight 17, at the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Grabovo, Ukraine.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Dmitry Lovetsky, AP)
The governments of Netherlands, Malaysia and Australia, which each lost travelers in the incident, have asked for an international tribunal to prosecute whoever shot down the plane. Russia vetoed the proposal at the United Nations Security Council, but Ukraine’s foreign minister said in July that another attempt would be made after the Dutch report was published.
USA TODAY
Malaysia Flight 17 'black box' will not answer why
The incident was the second disaster in one year for Malaysia within a few months. Flight 370 went missing March 8, 2014, on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and the search continues off the coast of Australia for the plane, after a wing part<span style="color: Red;">*</span>washed up on an island near Africa.
The Ukraine incident sparked a worldwide effort to get governments to share more information about conflict zones where planes should avoid flying. The issue is complicated because intelligence agencies that could warn where it is dangerous to fly don’t want others to figure out how they got their information.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, a branch of the United Nations that sets policies, set up a web page to check which countries have been declared no-fly zones.
ICAO
Conflict Zone Information Repository
The decisions about where to fly are hotly debated. For example, the European Aviation Safety Agency issued a warning Friday that warships were launching long-range missiles from the Caspian Sea at Syria, leading to flight risks above the Caspian Sea, Iran and Iraq. But the agency didn't urge airlines to avoid the region.
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