Many Questions Still Remain Including The Reasons For The Aircraft’s Chosen Altitude

The preliminary report issued in relation to the Malaysia Airlines MH17 tragedy in July has highlighted how the crash was a “catastrophic and rapid” event and raises concerns regarding why more was not done to prevent commercial aircraft from flying in the area, according to specialist aviation lawyers.

Published by the Dutch Safety Board, the report has provided an early update on the investigations being undertaken into the crash involving the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in which 298 passengers and crew died.

The key findings of the report include:

• Evidence which suggests the flight was brought down by numerous high energy objects
• That the aircraft was just 1,000ft above the restricted airspace when the incident occurred
• Co-ordinated access to wreckage has not been possible for investigators so far
• Evidence has been downloaded successfully from black-box data recorders onboard the flight, with the data stopping abruptly on the equipment with no systems warnings detected
• That three other commercial aircraft were also flying in the same region when the incident occurred.

Jim Morris, former RAF Boeing AWACS pilot and Partner in Irwin Mitchell’s specialist Aviation Law team, represents both injured victims and the families of those killed in major aviation accidents across the globe.
 
This leading aviation litigation team’s experience also includes expertise in representing the victims of civilian air accidents that occur in war and conflict zones or as a result of terrorism.
 
Reacting to report published today, he said:

 The Irwin Mitchell Aviation Law team’s extensive experience acting in major aviation cases includes:

• Representing the families of victims of the Lockerbie disaster involving Pan Am Flight 73 in 1988
• Acting for relatives of those killed in the September 11th World Trade Center attacks in 2001
• Representing families affected by the Kenya Airways flight KQ507 crash in Cameroon in 2007, when investigations were affected by the loss and looting of wreckage
• Acting for dozens of Afghan, UK and US families of passengers killed when a civilian flight operated by Pamir Airways came down in Afghanistan in 2010
• Representing the families of passengers killed in the Dana Air tragedy, when a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 crashed during its final approach to Lagos Airport in Nigeria
• Acting for the victims of several recent helicopter crashes which occurred in Glasgow, London, Shetland, the North Sea, France and Rwanda.

Read more about Irwin Mitchell's expertise in Air Accident Claims.