MH17 plane crash: New BBC documentary to air new claims the flight was targeted by a Ukraine jet
A CONTROVERSIAL new documentary will investigate claims that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a Ukraine fighter jet, instead of a Russian missile.
In a new BBC documentary titled ‘The Conspiracy Files: Who Shot Down MH17?’, eyewitnesses will share their accounts of how they saw the aircraft being downed by a nearby fighter jet.
“There are eyewitness accounts of other aircraft seen flying next to MH17 close to impact,” a statement from the BBC said.
“To further fuel the conspiracies, Russia and Ukraine blame each other but both countries are unable to provide all the critical radar data from that day.
“Family members do not trust the official explanations and there is a long way to go to bring about justice for the victims. This program tracks down eyewitnesses, and speaks with secret intelligence sources to try to sort fact from fiction.”
The documentary is also set to analyse the possibility that the downing of the jet was a CIA plot to pin the blame on Russia.
Earlier this month, Ukraine police arrested a man on suspicion of trying to kill the chief forensics officer, Oleksandr Ruvin, who was shot last year. Authorities believe the shooting was related to his role in the investigation of the plane.
The downed MH17 plane partially reconstructed in Holland. Picture: Ella PellegriniSource:News Corp Australia
The documentary comes as dozens of families of those killed when a missile shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine two years ago are considering suing the carrier for compensation, their lawyer told AFP.
All 298 passengers and crew — the majority of them Dutch — died when the Boeing 777 was hit by a Russian-made BUK anti-aircraft missile over war-torn eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.
“We are still negotiating the case. But the offers that Malaysia Airlines are making are almost offensive for our clients,” lawyer Veeru Mewa said.
His office, Beer Advocaten, represents the families of 91 people killed in the disaster. But he is also leading a core group of Dutch lawyers, acting for the families of some 168 people who died on the ill-fated flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Under a 1999 international accord dubbed the Montreal Convention, the families have until the second anniversary of the disaster — July 17 — to decide if they want to file a lawsuit.
Mewa said the airlines’ insurers were “taking advantage of Dutch law” under which if someone dies in an accident then you can only claim “compensation for the funeral costs.”
“According to international standards that would mean a Dutch life is worth less than any other life,” he said.
Another view of the MH17 plane after it was partially reconstructed. Picture: Ella PellegriniSource:Supplied
The lawsuit, if it is filed, would seek damages for the loss of earnings as well as compensation for the “psychological” trauma of those who lost loved ones.
The legal team was also thinking of holding Malaysia Airlines “liable for flying over Ukraine” which was in the middle of a conflict with government forces fighting pro-Russian rebels.
Many “families are struggling with real traumatic bereavement, real post-traumatic stress syndrome because of the images, seeing rebels walking on the gravesite, and not being able to go there, knowing that the Dutch government was not there to collect the bodies for quite a while,” Mewa said.
They just want “a just” settlement, and the offer so far on the table did not give them “satisfaction,” he added.
It remains to be decided if the suit would be filed in The Hague or in Malaysia, he said, adding that as well as Dutch clients the group including Swiss, Indonesian and Australian nationals.
The lawsuits come as Malaysia Airlines’ CEO Christoph Mueller came under fire last week for quitting his job early, as a union blasted him for “abandoning ship” saying his departure threatened the ailing flag carrier’s recovery.
He was picked last year to rescue the airline after it was hit by two disasters in 2014 involving its planes.
But he said he was leaving before the end of his three-year contract for unspecified “personal reasons”.
The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (NUFAM) issued a statement accusing Mueller of “abandoning the ship”.
“It’s like now there is a huge crack in the ship and when there is a leak, all hell will break loose again,” it said, warning darkly of “another chapter of leakages.”
The BBC ‘s new MH17 documentary is being aired on BBC 2 on May 3.
