Malaysian MH17

Malaysian Jet Downed Over Ukraine to Be Partly Rebuilt for Clues

The Malaysian passenger jet thought to have been shot down over Ukraine in July will be partly rebuilt in the Netherlands to help determine the cause of a crash that killed all 298 people on board, most Dutch nationals.

The Dutch Safety Board, which is overseeing a probe into the crash of Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS) Flight 17, said it plans to reconstruct a portion of the aircraft after recovering wreckage from rural Ukraine, where access to the site has been restricted amid fighting between government and rebel troops.

"Agreements have been made about a plan that should make it possible to recover the wreckage and hand it over to the Dutch Safety Board," the group said in a statement today. "The Dutch Safety Board expects that it will be possible to start the recovery operation within a few days, although the start may have to be delayed due to the precarious safety situation in the area and other factors."

An initial report into the possible cause of the crash found that the aircraft was hit by "a large number of high-energy objects," supporting allegations that a rocket impact may have led to the downing. Re-assembling fragments of an aircraft has helped determine the cause of accidents in the past, including the loss of TWA Flight 800 that exploded off Long Island in 1996.

The TWA-800 3-D Reconstruction

MH17 was carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew when it came down while traveling over a war zone in eastern Ukraine en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Dutch travelers made up the biggest national contingent aboard MH17, at more than 190, followed by Malaysians. The dead also included people from Australia, Indonesia, the U.K., Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand.

An analysis of the Malaysian Airline System Bhd. 777's voice recorder revealed no warning tones in the cockpit, and no emergency was declared by the experienced crew before the flight "ended abruptly," the report published in September said.