Bellingcat 's first major investigation , done mainly by volunteers without external funding , was the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 ( MH17 ) in 2014 . Their conclusion that Russia was responsible was later confirmed by the Joint Investigation Team ( JIT ) , which found in a report dated 25 May 2018 that the downing of MH17 was initiated by the Russian military . In other notable investigations using Google Earth , volunteer investigators working with Bellingcat said that they had discovered the coordinates of an Islamic State training camp , as well as the site where an American journalist was killed
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17
Bellingcat