Possible Missile Attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

Possible Missile Attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

CRS Insights
Possible Missile Attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Jeremiah Gertler, Specialist in Military Aviation (jgertler@crs.loc.gov, 7-5107)
July 28, 2014 (IN10115)
On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), a Boeing 777 bound from Amsterdam to Kuala
Lumpur, crashed in eastern Ukraine.
MH17's position was shown on live aircraft tracking websites using the airliner's automated dependent
surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) signal. Its final reported position was near the Russia-Ukraine border at
an altitude of 33,000 feet.
Initial reports from the crash scene indicated that the resulting debris field covered a large area. This is
characteristic when an aircraft breaks up at high altitude (as opposed to diving into the ground or
incidents on landing or takeoff, where the debris field is tightly confined around the point of impact).
Inflight breakup can occur for a number of reasons, including metal fatigue (as in the case of two
DeHavilland Comet jetliners in the 1950s); onboard explosions, whether caused by bombs or accidental
combustion (such as TWA flight 800 in 1996); or external events like a missile attack (as was the case
with Korean Air Lines 007 in 1983 and Iran Air 655 in 1988).
Because spontaneous inflight breakup of an airliner is a rare event, the crash's proximity to an active
conflict zone where military aircraft had recently been shot down led to speculation that MH17's
breakup may have been the result of a surface-to-air missile. This was reinforced when, almost
immediately, pictures appeared in social media purporting to show Russian-built Buk anti-aircraft
missile launchers near the crash site.
Man-portable air defense systems like the U.S. Stinger and Russian SA-18 are known to have
proliferated around the world. However, such systems lack the range to engage an airliner at 33,000
feet. The Buk (Russian for "Beech") is a road-mobile missile erector-launcher that, depending on
model, carries SA-11 (NATO reporting name "Gadfly") or SA-17 (NATO "Grizzly") surface-to-air
missiles. It normally operates as part of a complex with a separate radar and command post. However,
the Buk can fire autonomously, and reportedly has an automatic mode that engages any aircraft in a
designated zone. The Buk operator does not necessarily have positive confirmation of whether a given
target is military or civilian.
Subsequently, a Ukranian separatist commander gave an interview in which he claimed the rebels
possessed Buk systems, although whether they were captured from Ukranian government depots or
supplied by an outside party was unclear.
On July 20, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that U.S. intelligence had detected a missile
launch from the area where the Buks had been observed at the time MH17 was passing overhead. The
United States subsequently republished the social-media images of the Buk systems alleged to be in
eastern Ukraine, along with sensor data, communications intercepts, and other evidence that MH17
was brought down by a missile.
Further evidence supporting the theory of a shootdown appeared with the publication of pictures of the
crash site, in which apparent shrapnel holes can be seen in parts of the aircraft's skin, including in the
area of the cockpit. Such holes—particularly those where deformation of the metal indicates an object
entered the aircraft from outside—are not typical of the damage seen in cases of airframe structural
failure.
MH17's "black boxes," the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, were turned over to Dutch
aviation authorities on July 23. Although there has been considerable focus on locating and securing
these devices, the data recorders are most useful when the cause of an incident is unknown. They can

reveal to investigators what the pilots said to each other, their control inputs, and details of the
aircraft's movements. However, they do not include external data (such as images that could show the
airspace around the airliner and any missiles or aircraft in it). The flight data recorder could show the
buffeting effect of a nearby external explosion like that of a missile; whether the sound of such an
explosion would appear on the voice recorder or be distinguishable from other breakup sounds is so far
not known.
Dutch authorities have enlisted the assistance of British experts in analyzing MH17's crash. Analysis of
the aircraft wreckage, if it is reasonably undisturbed, should be able to establish the actual cause of
the breakup, as was achieved in the crashes cited above. If a missile brought down MH17, the size
and patterns of shrapnel holes and any possible explosive residues should help distinguish what type of
weapon was involved.