I am a Dutch citizen. 298 innocent people not involved in a war were killed. We have to find the truth. Many lies are spread by parties involved. This blog is my way of helping to find the truth.
Many false information was spread by Russian state and Putin controlled media about the flight path of MH17. Russia states the flight path deviated to the north leading the aircraft right above separatists controlled area in east Ukraine.
Is this true or not?
Summary: no it is not true. Russian media is not telling the truth. Continue below for the proof.
Flightradar24 is a very reliable way to track aircraft. Most civil aircraft have a transponder which transmits the aircraft height, speed, altitude, registration and flightnumber on a radio frequency. Using very simple equipment that data can be received by anyone interested. Many people worldwide have such equipment and voluntarilty feed Flightradar24 with data.
Below are three screendumps I made of MH17 flights. The flights were made at July 15, July 16 and July 17. It is easy to see the flights path are almost identical.
The next image shows an image of the flightpath suggested by Russia Today. Russia Today is a President Putin controlled tv station. Russia Today quotes Flightaware as its source. Notice that the flightpath of MH17 shown on Flightaware is a following a perfect route around the globe after entering Ukraine airspace. Notice as well the track changes from green to white. White indicates Flightaware did not receive a transponder signal from the plane. The reason for this is that Flightaware does not have a feed, unlike Flightradar 24, in Ukraine Coverage of Flightaware feeds is made clear here.
All flight paths of MH17 in the last 2 months or so can be viewed a Flightradar24. Click on the small plane icon at the end of the line.
All flights of MH17 at July 15,16 and 17 entered Ukraine airspace around Lublin in Poland.
They all flew slightly north of Donetsk.
They all flew above separatists controlled area on July 15,16 and 17
The red dotted line shown in all images below show the shortest possible route between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur.
The image below shows the flightpath of MH17 as flown in July 15!
Many other airlines were using the same route. For example Singapore Airlines on the Lodon Heathrow to Singapore route. See the image below for showing the route flown on July 16. Same route as Malaysian Airlines.
The image below shows the flightpath of MH17 as flown on July 16. See the registration of the aircraft in the left bottom corner: 9M-MRA
The aircraft flew slightly north of Donetsk.
Now lets look at the flight path of MH17 the next day, July 17. As shown on Flightradar 24 here.
The flightpath looks almost similar to the two days before. There is a small deviation to the north which started just north of Dnepropetrovsk. On July 15 and July 16 the flight overflew the separatists area as well.
Now lets look how the same flight is covered by Flightaware.
The picture below shows coverage of Flightaware. Clearly seen no coverage in Ukraine or further East.
This is the Flightaware track of July 16.
It is clearly visible the track color changes when the aircraft crossed the Polish-Ukraine border.
Now lets have a look how the Russian media and Russian state presents the routes.
In this article on Russia Today it states :
As you can easily conclude yourself using flightradar, the above is simply not true. Yes, MH17 of July 17 flew right over warn-torn Donetsk Region. But flights on July 15 and 16 as well!
The image below is used in the same article. The red line shows the flightpath according Russia Today. The aircraft was overflying the Crimea. Now scroll back in this article to the flightpath of July 15 as shown by Flightradar! Big difference.
In reality MH17 flights of July 15,16 and 17 flew almost the same route.
Now lets look what the Russia State presented during a press conference. See the slides here.
This image presented by Russian State shows a dramatic change of course of MH17 just above the city of Donetsk. This change is not shown in the Flightradar track.
I added the right arrow into the picture to indicate the flightpath of MH17 as presented by Russian State. The red line clearly makes a turn towards to northeast, then goes back southeast.
So it is up to you to judge who is right!
Where to spot at airports 