Map of a Tragedy:
How MH17 Came Apart Over Ukraine
The Wall Street Journal cataloged and mapped some of the debris
of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which fell across three Ukrainian
villages after the Boeing 777 was brought down on July 17, allegedly by a
surface-to-air missile.Read the related story »
Reporting by Jon Ostrower in Washington, D.C., Alexander Kolyandr, Margaret Coker and Paul Sonne in Ukraine
Interactive by Stuart A. Thompson / The Wall Street Journal
Renée Rigdon/The Wall Street Journal
Jump to a village
The crash of Malaysia
Airlines Flight 17 has been extraordinarily public. Investigators of
aircraft accidents typically cordon off the scene immediately after a
crash, and tightly control access for media and others to avoid
disturbing the debris.
Because Flight 17 fell in a war zone —across farm fields and homes near where pro-Russia separatists are fighting the Ukraine government — control of the wreckage has been chaotic, and the comparatively sanitized photos typically released by aviation safety officials have been replaced by thousands of images distributed across wire services and social media.
Mapping that wreckage is intended to illustrate how Flight 17 may have come down and the geographical challenges of conducting an investigation in a war zone.
Because Flight 17 fell in a war zone —across farm fields and homes near where pro-Russia separatists are fighting the Ukraine government — control of the wreckage has been chaotic, and the comparatively sanitized photos typically released by aviation safety officials have been replaced by thousands of images distributed across wire services and social media.
Mapping that wreckage is intended to illustrate how Flight 17 may have come down and the geographical challenges of conducting an investigation in a war zone.
EVERT-JAN DANIELS/EPA
Hrabove
DigitalGlobe via Reuters, annotations by The Wall Street Journal
1. Vertical Tail
The
jet's vertical tail with the Malaysia Airlines logo lies just down the
road from the aft fuselage section to which it was once attached.
Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters
2. Aft Fuselage and Horizontal Tail Structure
One
of the most intact pieces of Flight 17 is a portion of the aft fuselage
of the Boeing 777. This rear part, which attaches to the rest of the
jet's body behind the passenger cabin, landed upside down next to a road
in Hrabove, near what was left of the connection between the jet’s
horizontal tail, a wing on the tail that points the nose. One of the
carbon-fiber-composite horizontal tails was severed and found roughly
1,200 feet away in a grazing field.
ROBERT GHEMENT/EPA
3. Center Structure
The
single largest and most concentrated debris field is along a roadside
in Hrabove, more than five miles east of the western edge of the
documented debris field. The underside of the wings is visible in the
wreckage, identifiable by access holes used by manufacturing and
maintenance crews to work inside the fuel tanks. In the charred debris
field are parts of both of the jet's Rolls-Royce engines and a major
structure called the center wing box that connects both wings to the
fuselage and the well that holds the main landing gear. The landing gear
was tucked inside the jet when it was cruising at 33,000 feet.
Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters
4. Right Rear Door Frame
A
cattle pasture in Hrabove is littered with pieces of the jet's fuselage
skin. A part of the right side of the rear passenger cabin at the last
set of the jet’s doors sits mangled, its door missing. The skin shows
the identity of the Boeing 777, with the Malaysian registration 9M-MRD.
DOMINIQUE FAGETDOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty
5. Left Wingtip
The
remains of the left wingtip, with visible signs of what appear to be
shrapnel or puncture damage, sits severed from the rest of the wings,
which fell and burned more than a half mile away.
Jeroen Akkermans/RTL-4 Nieuws/Netherlands
6. Horizontal Tail
The
carbon-fiber-composite horizontal tail landed a few feet away from the
remains of the wingtip near a small pond. Partially covered in mud, the
tail was pulled from the nearby pond, according to one photographer.
Jeroen Akkermans/RTL-4 Nieuws/Netherlands
7. Cargo Door Frame
Scattered
pieces of the rear fuselage, like this one around the aft cargo bay,
litter a field in Hrabove a half-mile from the largest concentration of
debris containing the charred remains of the jet's center structure and
wings.
Paul Sonne/The Wall Street Journal
8. Crew Rest Bunks
On
long-range flights like those connecting Southeast Asia to Europe,
cabin crews use rest bunks to work in shifts. Malaysia Airlines
installed its berths underneath the floor of the 777 at the front of the
rear cargo bay. The under-floor bunks and their contents landed in a
field about 1,800 feet from the main debris site in Hrabove.
Alexander Kolyandr/The Wall Street Journal
Rozsypne
Google, annotations by The Wall Street Journal
9. Cockpit and Lower Nose
The
Boeing 777’s cockpit and lower nose section landed in a sunflower field
in Rozsypne, approximately 1.6 miles from the cargo floor section to
which it was once attached and nearly four miles from Hrabove. The
remains of the flight deck, its floor, displays and pilot controls were
strewn nearby. Personal effects from the passengers and crew litter the
site. The jet’s avionics components and wiring from the under-floor
electronics bay were crushed into the nose landing gear, which became
separated while it was tucked up into the forward wheel well.
Rob Stothard/Getty Images
Petropavlivka
Google, annotations by The Wall Street Journal
10. Lower Forward Cargo Floor
The
jet’s lower forward cargo floor landed nearly five miles from the main
debris field in Hrabove on a side road in the town of Petropavlivka.
Local residents collected debris littered across the neighborhood and
deposited it on this section of the aircraft that was once part of the
forward cargo bay. Bundles of wires, air ducting, the nose landing-gear
bay door and even demolished drink carts now sit on top of the silver
rollers that make up the lower belly of the Boeing 777.
Paul Sonne/The Wall Street Journal
11. Overhead Bins
Indications
of the jet's pre-crash breakup are overhead bins that landed in the
town of Petropavlivka, just under five miles from the center portion of
the jet, where they were once installed. A passenger's in-flight
entertainment system screen is seen hanging from the ceiling, next to
exit-door lighting that comes on in an emergency. These bins came from
the left side in economy class, near the third of four sets of doors on
the Boeing 777.
Paul Sonne/The Wall Street Journal
12. Flight Deck Window Cutout
An
early sign of what felled Flight 17 turned up in Petropavlivka, propped
up against a concrete post in a small residential neighborhood. A
white, red and blue piece of twisted aluminum that once made up the
structure just underneath the captain's side window of the flight deck
is pocked with holes that resemble shrapnel damage.
Paul Sonne/The Wall Street Journal
13. Left-Hand Door Two
Part
of Flight 17's fuselage used as the main boarding entryway on the
left-hand side of the Boeing 777 landed in a cabbage patch. The area
around the door frame structure wears the remnants of the airline’s
branding at the second of four of the jet’s doors. The door on the
right-hand side of the aircraft was found in a field around 0.4 miles
away.
Paul Sonne/The Wall Street Journal
14. Engine Pod Parts
Pieces
of the under-wing pod that holds the right Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engine
were found nearly 4.7 miles from Hrabove, where both engines were
found. Photos of debris show the broken remains of the Rolls-Royce logo
and indications of piercing damage.
Alexander Kolyandr/The Wall Street Journal
15. Overhead Bins
Other
overhead bins were found sitting in a tree across from the
Petropavlivka village hall. The Row 2 markings on the bins indicate they
came from the business-class cabin.
Paul Sonne/The Wall Street Journal
16. Right-Hand Door Two
The
Malaysian flag adorns the mangled fuselage panel that was once the
structure around the second of four doors, which remained in place on
the right side of the 777 after the fall from 33,000 feet. The
corresponding structure on the left-hand side of the aircraft was found
in a garden about 0.4 miles away.
Paul Sonne/The Wall Street Journal
17. Forward Fuselage Roof
The
exact sequence of Flight 17's fall to earth is still unclear, but the
wide dispersal of debris across the three towns is indicative of a
high-altitude breakup. A cluster of pieces of the jet's forward fuselage
roof landed in wheat fields in Petropavlivka around five miles from the
end of the documented debris field.
Paul Sonne/The Wall Street Journal
18. Upper Fuselage Skin
The
violence of Flight 17’s destruction is evident in how it came to rest
after its fall from 33,000 feet. The white-painted skin of the forward
fuselage is pocked with what appear to be shrapnel holes. This piece,
when installed on the aircraft, is just behind and above the pilot’s
flight deck windows in the side or upper ceiling.
Paul Sonne/The Wall Street Journal
19. Forward Fuselage Wall
A
large piece of the left side of the forward fuselage bearing Malaysia
Airlines red, blue, white and gray colors landed near other forward
fuselage pieces across wheat fields in Petropavlivka. The broken,
outward-bent edges of the panel may be a key clue for the investigation,
potentially indicative of an explosive decompression, which Ukrainian
officials said occurred after Flight 17 was allegedly hit.
Paul Sonne/The Wall Street Journal
