Russian missile company blows up another plane to 'disprove' the official MH17 inquiry

A Russian company that makes anti-aircraft missiles has blown up a retired jumbo jet in an attempt to disprove the conclusion of an official inquiry that one of its weapons was used to down the MH17 passenger plane last year.

Ahead of the release of findings from a Dutch inquiry into the crash, officials from Almaz Antey showed a video to journalists on Tuesday which they say disproves the claims that it was caused by a Russian-made missile.

According to the Telegraph's Roland Oliphant, the company says it blew up a Buk warhead next to the cockpit in an experiment earlier this month and claimed that their results showed that the missile which downed MH17 must have been an older one that is no longer used in Russia.

The official Dutch Safety Board report claims that the Malaysian Airlines Boeing-777 was shot down by a Russian-made Buk missile that was fired from rebel-held (ie pro-Russian) territory in Ukraine. Almaz Antey say the missile was fired from government-held territory.

The results of our experiment contradict the Dutch report. It can now be clearly said that if a rocket was used it was a Buk 9M38, not a Buk 9M38M1, fired from the area of Zaroshchensk.

The only thing that we do not yet understand are why fragments of 9M38m1 are amongst the evidence.

• Yan Novikov, the general director of Almaz Antey

Relatives of the victims, who were briefed on the inquiry's findings before they were made public, have told reporters that it is believed those on board would most likely have died instantly and therefore not suffered.

In response to the Almaz Antey press conference, Tibbe Joustra, the chairman of the Dutch inquiry told journalists: "It’s always special when people already know that they don’t agree with a report that’s not even published yet."

You can watch the full video of Almaz Antey's experiment below:

MH17, which was flying between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur, crashed on July 17 last year killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board.

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