21 Jul 2014

Searching for the truth about MH17

The nuttiest conspiracy theory I’ve seen so far has it that flight MH17 was full of the bodies of those who died on flight MH370, the aircraft that disappeared over the Indian Ocean back in March.


The pilots ejected by parachute after setting off a bomb, on the orders of their masters in the CIA who wanted to smear the rebels in eastern Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin.

You may think that is so barking that no-one could possibly give it any credence, but as the investigation into how the plane came down stalls before it even starts, it will become difficult to establish any forensic version of events, leaving the way clear for any lunatic or propagandist to launch their theory into cyberspace.

As far as I can tell, no air accident investigators have yet visited the site – just a Dutch team identifying victims, who went to the train where bodies have been taken. A six-person British team from the Department of Transport are in Kiev, consulting with the Ukrainian authorities who do not control the area where the plane crashed.

The Foreign Office points out that their “travel advice” warns against visiting the Donetsk area. The dozens of journalists who have reported from the sunflower fields where the bodies and debris fell do not follow such advice (of course – how would we ever cover anything?) but diplomats and bureaucrats do.

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As they dither, armed men are tampering with the evidence scattered across the fields, ensuring that should forensics teams eventually show up it will be far too late to come to any conclusions.

The only evidence is being provided by journalists who are taking photos of wreckage, including what appear to be fragments of the Buk or SA-11 missile believed to have shot down the plane. I presume that the air accident investigators are studying those pictures.

If not, I would recommend they look at a website started by auto-didact weapons expert Elliot Higgins, who is collating all the photos.

It’s not getting any safer, so maybe the air accident investigators will never go to the site. Today Ukrainian forces shelled Donetsk, presumably taking advantage of the rebels being on the back foot. Their aim is presumably to expand the area they control, so they can resupply their brigade on the Russian border.

Further delaying the investigation is an unfortunate side effect.  The west is on their side anyway, so the Ukrainians may calculate that gaining the military advantage is more important.

The internet is a strange and contradictory thing. On the one hand journalists can post dozens of pictures allowing anybody with knowledge to investigate at long distance. On the other, it’s an ungoverned space where any wildcat conspiracy theorist can let rip. People are so overwhelmed by information they will believe what they want.

Either way it unfolds at breakneck pace, while diplomats and traditional investigators are filling in security forms and holding meetings, and politicians pontificate, wondering why no-one listens or believes what they say.

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