Malaysian airliner crashes in Ukraine

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was downed in eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 people aboard.

Updated 5 August 2014

Rebel control of eastern Ukraine

Missile launchers spotted in villages

U.S. intelligence agencies released pictures from social media showing what they said were SA-11 missile launchers being driven through streets near where the missile was fired that brought down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17.

Flying over a troubled region

In the seven days before the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 in eastern Ukraine, 930 flights from 67 airlines flew over the Donetsk region controlled by pro-Russian separatists, according to data from Flightradar24.

Crossing conflict zones

Plotting a flight route between Southeast Asia and Europe without crossing a conflict zone is tricky. Logical paths are likely to cross Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq or Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines flight MH4 flew over war-torn Syria on July 20, raising questions on the carrier's internal threat analysis.

Surface-to-air missiles

Ukrainian officials accused separatist rebels of shooting down MH17 with a Soviet-era BUK SA-11 missile.

Buk SA-11

A look at the Soviet-era surface-to-air missile system.

Flight data recorders

Flight MH17’s data and cockpit voice recorders have been retrieved. The black boxes — which are in fact orange — will also provide detailed information on the flight.

Flight path