On Tuesday, the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) announced that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crashed as a result of an explosion by a warhead carried on a 9M38-series missile, as installed on a Buk surface-to-air missile. The board noted that an additional forensic investigation will be needed to establish the exact launch location of the missile. The Dutch Joint Investigation Team is also continuing its probe and expected to reveal its report in early 2016.
"Further investigation needs to be done, and it would seem to me an objective spirit that the Russians would say that this is the right thing to do as well. This was a civilian airline shot down. It is absolutely unacceptable… They need to be joining in, and they need to show outrage as well that shooting down the civilian airliner is unacceptable," Rosenker said.
Former NTSB chairman stressed that in his opinion the DSB report is of high scientific quality, and any opposition to the continuation of the investigation into such major catastrophe is unacceptable.
According to the DSB report, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 aircraft was shot down by a Russian-manufactured Buk surface-to-air missile. However, the organization was unable to specify the exact location from where the missile was launched, defining just an area of 320 square kilometers (123 square miles) in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine and Western allies of the country blame the missile attack on a militia in the country’s east, which allegedly had been provided with the weapons by Russia. The militia claimed that they did not have weapons capable of bringing down high-altitude aircraft and blamed Kiev forces for the plane crash.
Russian air defense system producer Almaz-Antey claims the missile was launched from the region of Zaroshchenske, controlled by Kiev forces at the time of the incident.
The Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) said on Tuesday, after the report was unveiled, that it had proposed that plane crashes with large casualty numbers be investigated by international commissions under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Oleg Storchevoy, the deputy head of Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia), said Wednesday that Moscow would use its right to initiate a renewal of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash investigation.
Rosaviatsia had previously written to ICAO, criticizing DSB investigators over their inquiry methods into the MH17 flight crash.
