Dutch Safety Board chairman Joustra confirms MH17 was not hit by bullets

In an interview with Dutch TV program Nieuwsuur the chairman of the Dutch Safety Board says “dat er scherven zijn ingeslagen in het vliegtuig. This translates to ” the aircraft was hit by fragments (shards)”.
To see this statement you can watch a recording of Nieuwsuur here. The statement is done at minute 15:48 in the broadcast. More information on the interview here.

This is a remarkable statement. In the preliminary report of the Dutch Safety Board it was stated

“The pattern of damage observed in the forward fuselage and cockpit section of the aircraft was consistent with the damage that would be expected from a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside,”

High energy objects can be understood as fragments/shrapnel/shards but also as bullets from a cannon.

Not shown on the tv interview but confirmed by the NOS Nieuwsuur reporter Rudy Bouma was the statement of Joustra that MH17 was NOT hit by bullets.

In a  Rudy Bouma says” Ik heb op die scherven doorgevraagd: “Scherven, geen kogels?”. Scherven beaamde Joustra” which translates to:

I asked about those fragments: fragments, no  bullets? “Fragments” confirmed Joustra.

This is a very interesting statement. It basically confirms MH17 was hit by a surface to air missle. While there are air to air rockets which use fragmentation warheads, those rockets are too small to have downed MH17. Additionally those rockets generally hit at hot part of a target like the engines. Also those rockets do not carry multiple shaped fragments. In many cases rods (lines of metal) are used to hit the target.

In the case of MH17 the missile is believed to have exploded near the cockpit. Also looking at the different shapes of entry holes, some of those square, this is very likely to have been caused by a 9N314 warhead used by the SA-11 BUK SAM.

In the same interview is said

De raad heeft niet alle belangrijke wrakstukken op de rampplek kunnen vinden. “Er zijn stukken ontvreemd. Sommige onderdelen hadden misschien een praktisch nut voor de bevolking, maar van andere stukken denken we dat die gericht zijn verwijderd.

This translates to “the Dutch Safety Board did not find all important wreckage at the crash site. Some pieces were removed. Some debris might have had a practical use for the villagers, but of some debris we believe  have been removed deliberately”