Missile which downed Blackpool man's flight was 'Russian' say investigators
The missile that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people including a Blackpool man, was from the Russian military, investigators have said.
Wilbert Paulissen, of the Dutch National Police, said the missile was from the Russian military's 53rd anti-aircraft missile brigade based in the Russian city of Kursk.
Mr Paulissen was speaking at a presentation of interim results of the long-running investigation into the downing of flight MH17.
The passenger jet was heading from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when it was blown out of the sky over eastern Ukraine on July 17 2014.
Glenn Thomas, 49, was an avid traveller excited about going to Australia for the first time when his Malaysian Airlines MH17 flight to Kuala Lumpar was apparently shot down over war-torn Ukraine.
The former journalist and spokesman for the World Health Organisation in Geneva, was on his way to a medical conference in Australia when his flight came down close to the Russian border.
Glenn’s twin sister, Tracey Withers who lives in South Shore, described her brother at "the most generous, kind person who always thought about others first."
Russia has always denied involvement in the downing of the jet