Eliot Higgins at Campus Party Europe 2016
Eliot Higgins visited the Netherlands in May 2016 to deliver a presentation for the Campus Party Europe. The title of the presentation was “How social media came to play such a large role in the investigation of the downing of flight MH17.”
On July 17th 2014 Flight MH17 was downed over Eastern Ukraine. Using open source information and social media, the Bellingcat Investigation Team was able to expose not only what happened on that day, but also attempts from the Russian authorities to cover up what really happened. Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins takes you through the investigation step by step, explaining exactly how Bellingcat was able to investigation the case of MH17 using this new way of investigation.
Campus Party is the greatest technological experience of the world which brings together young geeks & aspiring entrepreneurs in a festival of innovation, creativity, science, digital entertainment & entrepreneurship.
The event was held in Utrecht between May 25 – 29 / 2016
Below is a recording of the presentation.
Admin:
It’s amazing that in the video from 16:10 the “team” managed to locate a particular field, i.e. a possible missile launch site. If I had been in the audience I would have asked if they also verified MH17’s flight path and warhead detonation position allowing for angle of view and altitude and again using landscape features. If the warhead’s detonation position was approximate then the alleged missile launch location might be approximate also?
Wind Tunnel Man: Bellingcat *believes* that field south of Snizhne is the launch location. This is based on the photos showing white smoke combined with the field showing traces of burns.
There are many questions to be asked about this. To start with: how likely is it a field is set on fire? To a layman this sound logical but is it the case? When was the field burned? Could something else set the field on fire. It is likely the white and black some originate from the same event.
Many questions with no solid answers.
Admin:
“…Bellingcat *believes* that field south of Snizhne is the launch location. This is based on the photos showing white smoke combined with the field showing traces of burns.”
Yes I understand his allegations about the field in question but to support that claim with what was perhaps a merely illustrative graphic produced by the Americans seems absurd if the other points on the graphic were not verified. If the other points on the graphic had been verified and he had mentioned that in his presentation, i.e. it was not merely an illustrative graphic, then I would have taken that evidence seriously.