Black Boxes: MH17 Downed by 'Explosive Decompression'

Missile 'did what it was designed to do'
By Shelley Hazen,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 28, 2014 8:57 AM CDT
Black Boxes: MH17 Downed by 'Explosive Decompression'
A pro-Russian rebel touches the MH17 wreckage at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, near the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine.    (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17's black boxes have revealed that the plane was brought down by a "massive explosive decompression” after its fuselage was pierced by shrapnel from a missile explosion, a Ukrainian security spokesman tells the AP. "It did what it was designed to do—bring down airplanes," a European air safety official tells CBS News. The black boxes are being examined by experts in the UK. Britain’s Foreign Office says evidence is mounting that the culprit was likely a "Russian SA-11 surface to air missile system, operating from within a Russian-backed separatist area in eastern Ukraine," the Christian Science Monitor adds.

The Ukrainian foreign minister expressed doubts to CBS that the pro-Russian separatists believed responsible bought a "highly-sophisticated, anti-aircraft missile" on the black market, reports USA Today. "It's of course about responsibility of those (Russians) who bring also across the border all inflow of weapons and weaponry.'' Violent clashes around the crash site continue and investigators had to turn back today. (More Malaysia Airlines MH17 stories.)

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