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The Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash site in Ukraine. Source: Twitter/ @mashable
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The Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash site in Ukraine. Source: Twitter/ @mashable
Tuesday, 9 September 2014 - 13:06
First reactions to initial MH17 report
After Tuesday's Dutch Safety Board release of a highly-anticipated preliminary report on its findings from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 plane crash investigation, social media sites such as Twitter became overflowed with people expressing opinions on the initial conclusions.
With several news sources linking to the Dutch investigators' first findings, many tweeters seemed stunned that the only concrete conclusion points to the plane having disintegrated mid-air due to high-energy objects, despite eyewitness claims that Russian soldiers fired a BUK missile at the aircraft, journalists' claims that Russian separatists were seen with a BUK missile system in the area of the crash, claims for credit taken by a Russian separatist leader, and Russia's claims that Ukrainian jets were responsible for the passenger jet crash.
Many tweets point out that this was already widely believed to be the obvious cause of the plane's crash as early reports showed images of the plane's exterior broken up and distributed across the crash site, riddled with holes.
https://twitter.com/foreverutd/status/509268448933736448
There was a sense of exasperation in many tweets, as the report does not seem to satisfy the urge for more enlightening conclusions.
https://twitter.com/shaunhowe11/status/509267372252090368
With early theories on the culprits behind the crash already compiling sufficient evidence to lay the blame squarely on Russia, tweeters are disappointed that the report makes no effort to lay some evidence towards a guilty party.MH17 report . No surprises. But clearly the crew knew nothing of impending disaster pic.twitter.com/ME94fvBjtr
— Phil Williams (@PhilWilliamsABC) September 9, 2014
Long story short, #MH17 was gunned down. But it's too early to put the blame on Putin.
— A.S (@am_suhaimi) September 9, 2014
The fact that it has taken this long to gather, what the public seems to think, information that those following the tragedy already knew is also causing anger. The Board points out that it will take up to a year to gather further information that will make it more clear where these 'high-speed objects' came from.#MH17 I pray that the criminals who did this will be fully persecuted and tried. I strongly doubt if it will ever happen though. #sickening.
— Lucas Hartong (@LucasHartong) September 9, 2014
One Russian official, former Kremlin and government advisor Alexander Kekrassov, posted a tweet that makes it clear that he thinks the report is ridiculous, and out to make Russia look bad.#MH17 - no mention of BUK - no mention of 2 Ukraine jets. We have to wait for a year for answers. OUTRAGEOUS
— Robyn Townsend (@robylla) September 9, 2014
The Dutch Safety Board's report on the #MH17 is like something from the sequel to the film Aeroplane. Makes no sense.
— Alexander Nekrassov (@StirringTrouble) September 9, 2014