An international expert team investigating the cause of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine has concluded that the plane was shot down by a Buk surface-to-air missile system on July 17, 2014.

This conclusion follows from the final report of the Dutch Safety Board which was released in The Hague, the Netherlands.

According to the report, the missile hit the cockpit's left-hand side which separated from the rest of the fuselage after impact.

"The investigation has shown that flight MH17 progressed normally up to the moment when the plane was flying over the eastern part of Ukraine. At 13.20 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) a 9N314M warhead, launched by a Buk surface-to-air missile system from a 320-square-kilometre area in the eastern part of Ukraine, detonated to the left and above the cockpit. The forward section of the aircraft was penetrated by hundreds of high-energy objects coming from the warhead," reads a press release on the final report of the Dutch Safety Board.

As a result of the impact and the subsequent blast, the three crew members in the cockpit were killed immediately and the plane broke up in the air.

"Wreckage from the plane was distributed over various sites within an area of 50 square kilometers. All 298 occupants were killed," the release said.

The Dutch Safety Board said it established the cause of the crash on the basis of several sources. The weapon system used was identified on the basis of, among other things, the damage pattern on the wreckage, fragments found in the wreckage and in the bodies of crew members, and the way in which the aircraft broke up.

The findings are supported by data on the flight recorders. In addition, traces of paint on a number of missile fragments were found to match the paint on parts of a missile recovered from the area by the Dutch Safety Board.

"Other potential causes, such as an explosion inside the plane or an air-to-air missile, have been investigated and excluded. No scenario other than a Buk surface-to-air missile can explain this combination of facts," the Dutch Safety Board said.

The 320-square-kilometre area from which the missile was launched has been determined on the basis of various simulations. "Additional forensic investigation will be needed to establish the exact launching location; however, such an investigation lies outside the scope of the Dutch Safety Board's mandate," the press release said.