On 17 July 2014 a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200, registered 9M-MRD and operating as flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, disappeared from air traffic services radar overhead the Ukraine. Aircraft wreckage was subsequently identified over a large area to the south and west of the village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine. There were no survivors.
Responsibility for the conduct of the investigation into that accident was delegated to the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) by the Ukrainian Government on 23 July 2014.
Subsequently, in July 2014 the DSB commenced a separate investigation into the operation of flight MH17 through eastern Ukrainian airspace. This second investigation was titled Decision-making regarding safety of flight routes.
Together with the investigation agencies of a number of other countries, on 18 September 2014 the ATSB received a request from the DSB for assistance in the conduct of its safety of flight routes investigation. The DSB request sought to provide a global context to its own investigation findings. The ATSB agreed to the DSB request and, in order to protect the information gathered as part of this process, initiated an external investigation under the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003 on 7 October 2014.
The report on the ATSB’s investigation of the safety of flight-route decision-making in the Australian context was provided to the DSB on 21 November 2014 for inclusion in their final safety of flight routes investigation report. It is understood that this report is to be published early in the final quarter of 2015.
The DSB is responsible for, and will administer the release of the final investigation report. Any enquiries regarding the DSB investigation should, in the first instance, be directed to:
Dutch Safety Board
PO Box 95404 25 09 CK
The Hague
Tel: +31 70 333 70 00
General enquiries email: info@onderzoeksraad.nl
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Released in accordance with section 25 of the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003.