German Television’s Investigation of Death-Flight MH17

Germany’s channel 1 (ARD) is running its investigative report of the downing of  “Death Flight” (Todesflug) MH 17. Although it lets Russian separatist leaders and Russian propagandists present their narrative, ARD does conclude that MH17 was shot down by a BUK missile system operating in rebel territory, most likely by a Russian crew.

The German program brings forth little that is new. Like other reports, it relies heavily on videos of the BUK entering from Russian, traveling to Snizhnoe, and then skeedadling back to Russia. It interviews locals who confirm the firing of the missile. It carries extensive interviews with the Bellingcat group, whose findings have been widely distributed.

The only real news is that the ambassadors to Ukraine has been told about the downing of Ukrainian military aircraft at high elevations. The ARD program asks why the various countries operating flights over east Ukraine, including Germany, did not close these skies. The program speculates that Ukraine did not want to close its air space because of the loss of ATC revenues.

Strangely, ARD did not release the results of forensic investigations of the wreckage. It claims that the participating countries are bound by secrecy, but the evidence has been widely cited as confirming that MH17 was shot down by a missile, not by a trailing jet as Russia claims.

The most intriguing rumor was that German intelligence has reported that the missile system did not come from Russia. ARD speculates that Europe does not want Russia to be held responsible for diplomatic reasons.