Russian-Made Missile Downed Flight MH17: Investigators

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was destroyed by a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine, the Dutch Safety Board concluded in their final report Tuesday, NBC News reported. 

Tjibbe Joustra, chairman of the Dutch Safety Board said the crash was caused by "the detonation of a warhead" less than a yard from the MH17 cockpit, killing three crew and breaking off the front of the plane.

The warhead was a BUK surface-to-air missile — which is made in Russia, according to Reuters.

The missile's Russian maker, however, presented its own report hours earlier, trying to clear Russia-backed separatists who controlled the area or Ukraine of any involvement in the crash on July 17, 2014, that killed all 298 people aboard the plane.

The board said the plane should never have been flying there as Ukraine should have closed its airspace to civil aviation, adding that nobody gave a thought to the dangers to passenger planes.

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