Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 broke apart in the air after it was hit by a burst of `` high-energy objects '' from outside , a preliminary report by Dutch aviation investigators said Tuesday . Flight 17 came down in eastern Ukraine on July 17 in an area controlled by pro-Russian separatists . Of the 298 people killed , around two-thirds were Dutch . The U.S. and Ukraine have accused pro-Russian separatists operating in the region of downing the plane with a missile . The Dutch Safety Board report supports the theory of a warhead exploding in close proximity to the passenger jet , but it does n't point any fingers at who might have fired it . `` Anybody who 's looking for blame , or somebody who says that the rebels did it or that somebody else did it , is going to be disappointed , '' said CNN Aviation Correspondent Richard Quest . `` That 's not what this report says . '' Plane pierced 'from outside ' The Boeing 777 `` broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside , '' a press release accompanying the report said . `` There are no indications that the MH17 crash was caused by a technical fault or by actions of the crew , '' the statement said . Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the report `` leads to the strong suspicion that a surface to air missile brought MH17 down , but further investigative work is needed before we can be certain . '' The separatists , who deny responsibility for bringing down the plane , took control of the crash site for weeks , combing through the wreckage and hindering access to investigators . The flight recorders , generally known as black boxes , were n't handed over to international investigators for several days . But the Dutch report says investigators found `` no evidence or indications of manipulation of the recorders . '' It said there was no sign of any audible alerts or of any malfunction or worries communicated between the crew on the flight data recorders . Why does crash report avoid the word 'missile ' ? Unable to visit site . The Dutch investigators say they still have n't been able to visit the site amid the unstable situation in eastern Ukraine . `` Coordinated access to the wreckage site by the international team of air safety investigators has not yet been possible , '' it said . `` It is the intention of the Dutch Safety Board to visit the site whenever it is possible to safely conduct further investigation of the wreckage . '' The investigation team had to rely on photographs of wreckage taken by officials from Ukraine 's National Bureau of Air Accidents Investigation during a series of short visits to the site in July , the report said . The Dutch investigators set out a list of areas that still need further investigation , including forensic examination of wreckage and any foreign objects found .
Anyone `` looking for blame ... is going to be disappointed , '' CNN 's Richard Quest says . A Dutch report finds `` no indications of manipulation '' of flight recorders . Investigators say they still do n't have coordinated access to the crash site . The U.S. and Ukraine have accused pro-Russian rebels of shooting down the plane .