Conspiracy theory aficionados should be elated. The venerable BBC has announced an upcoming film in its “Conspiracy Files” series examining new claims about the downing of the Malaysian flight MH17 which crashed on July 17, 2014 in separatist occupied eastern Ukraine, 25 miles from the Russian border.
The BBC has dismissed claims that this documentary blames Ukraine for shooting down the plane, saying rather that the film neither establishes nor confirms Ukraine as responsible for the air disaster, but examines the various theories concerning the tragic crash that killed all 298 people on board.
The film examines different versions of the tragedy and promises to separate “fact from fiction” and analyze “the Kremlin’s role in the search for the truth about who shot down flight MH17». One of the claims examined in the BBC film is that a Ukrainian fighter jet shot down MH17. The film argues that this could not have happened as the fighter in question is unable to fly at such high altitudes.
In a feature published on the BBC magazine website, Conspiracy Files producer Mike Rudin asks why there are so many conspiracy theories surrounding MH17 and why many of them state are sanctioned.
In writing about the upcoming BBC film, Russian publications stress that new evidence points the finger of blame on Ukraine. They cite the British newspaper the Daily Mail which featured several of the conspiracy theories examined in the film. One of the versions the Conspiracy Files team examined and the Daily Mail focused on extensively are interviews with eyewitnesses conducted by Berlin freelance journalist Billy Six, in which several people claim to have seen a fighter jet alongside MH 17 t at the moment of the crash.
Another British tabloid the Sunday Express writes that out of 100 persons interviewed by Billy Six, seven claim to have seen the fighter plane.
In 2012 Billy Six was captured in Syria, he was released through the intervention of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Six has actively covered the separatist was in eastern Ukraine, posting his video stories on his YouTube channel.
Also featured in the BBC documentary is Dutch citizen journalist Max van der Werff, who allegedly admitted in conversation with Billy Sixx, that many people refused to speak with him on camera about seeing the alleged fighter plane. A video interview with Leo Bulatov, which van der Werf fdid manage to shoot is actively used by Russian media in blaming Ukraine for the crash.
Max van der Werff rejects all official MH17 crash reports as fakes. He actively supports the Dutch movement DeOmmekeer, which opposes Ukraine’s cooperation with the EU and often posts articles and tweets supporting the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Using the upcoming BBC film as a source, many Russian web publications concluded that the BBC was accusing Ukraine of downing the MH17 plane, among them TASS, lenta.ru, RIA Novosti, Sputnik and RT.
Rossiyskaya Gazeta for example cites Russian Duma Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Aleksey Pushkov who said that the upcoming BBC film is on par with the recent Paul Moreira French documentary on the Maidan revolution.
StopFake has debunked similar alternative investigations into the shooting down of MH17 and the tragic crash has been analyzed by many reputable international organizations and specialists.
In October 2015 the Dutch Safety Board concluded that a Buk surface-to-air missile system caused the MH17 crash. The investigation found that the BUK missile system was located on the territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
