This piece of wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 vividly shows the devastating power of the Russian-made missile that brought down the passenger plane, killing all 298 people on board.
The remnant of the doomed Boeing 777 is peppered with holes and burn marks that are “consistent” with shrapnel damage from a Buk warhead, weapons experts told the Financial Times.
The large hole in the center was likely punched out from the inside when the aircraft rapidly depressurized at 33,000 feet over eastern Ukraine on July 17, the experts said.
Experts said the blast pattern suggests the missile exploded in front and to the left of the craft.
The radar-guided rocket isn’t designed to blow up on impact, but instead streaks to within feet of its target, at which point a “proximity fuse” triggers more than 150 pounds of high explosives inside a pre-fragmented steel shell.
The wreckage was found in a back yard in rebel-controlled Petropavlovka and moved to the roadside by villagers, the FT said.