GILZE-RIJEN AIR BASE, Netherlands—Investigators probing the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 concluded that a sophisticated, Russian-made antiaircraft missile struck the Boeing Co. 777 jetliner, causing it to break apart in midair and plummet for up to a minute and a half before the wreckage hit the ground.
The Buk missile was fired from eastern Ukraine, said Tjibbe Joustra, chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, as the agency, which is leading the crash investigation, published its final report into the crash that killed all 298 people on board.
It is the first time those involved in the probe have publicly endorsed the long-held view that such a missile was used to shoot down the passenger plane. Ukraine has accused Russian-backed militants operating in the area, while the rebels have suggested Ukrainian forces were responsible.
The crash investigators weren't assigning blame for who fired the missile. Further forensic analysis would be required to determine the exact launch location within a 320-square-kilometer (124-square-mile) area, Mr. Joustra said, adding that such efforts lay outside the scope of the crash probe.
A separate criminal probe investigating culpability is continuing. The Dutch National Public Prosecution Service said its probe, which will run into next year, so far echoes the crash report. “Persons of interest” key to the investigation have been identified, it said, without giving details. It added that investigating and eventually arresting perpetrators can take time.
Accident investigators also concluded that the Ukrainian government should have closed the airspace over the embattled east where the country’s armed forces were battling the separatists. Mr. Joustra said there were sufficient indications commercial flights were at risk after several military planes had been shot down.
The head of Ukraine’s air traffic control service rejected that argument. Before the downing of Flight 17 “no one could imagine that such powerful facilities, powerful equipment such as a Buk could be used against the civil aircraft,” Dmytro Babeichuk said at a news conference.
The Dutch Safety Board urged governments and airlines to do more to reduce the risk of flying over conflict areas, arguing in its 279-page report that the current system “does not work as it should.” It issued several recommendations for change, which represent a boost to a global push to share information about hazards to commercial flights.
That was echoed by Ukraine’s Mr. Babeichuk. “There are no unified, world-wide practices about the total closure of the airspace in such areas,” he said, adding that “one of the examples is Syria, where the airspace still is not closed completely.”
The Dutch safety board is leading the investigation into the cause of the crash because 193 Dutch citizens were on board the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was downed while cruising at 33,000 feet on July 17, 2014.
Even after investigators finish their probe, finding justice through the international system could be difficult. Russia in July vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution to establish a criminal tribunal to investigate the downing.
Malaysia’s transport minister Liow Tiong Lai said his country and other states are trying to set up an independent international court to prosecute those found responsible and that “our fight for justice is far from over.”
Many family and friends of passengers said the investigation didn’t provide the comfort they were hoping for and voiced fears that those responsible will never be punished.
“I’m afraid this will become a political game that will never result in the prosecution of the perpetrators,” said Sigrid Huisman, whose friend Tamara Ernst was on her way to Bali for a backpacking trip. “Are these people still even traceable?”
The Russian maker of the antiaircraft missile tried to cast doubt on the Dutch findings in advance. Almaz Antey gathered hundreds of journalists Tuesday morning in a complex in outer Moscow, where Chief Executive Yan Novikov argued its experiments showed that if MH17 was downed by a Buk system, it was by a different type of missile than Dutch investigators specified.
Dutch authorities established the type of missile based on the pattern of distinctively shaped fragments found in both the wreckage and the bodies from the cockpit, which investigators concluded match only a specific type of Buk warhead.
The missile warhead detonated outside the airplane on the left of the cockpit, spraying hundreds of fragments and killing the three crew members. The forward section of the plane then broke off as the jetliner lost structural integrity, Mr. Joustra said.
It took between a minute and 1 1/2 minutes before the wreckage hit the ground. The report said investigators found no indications that passengers took “conscious actions” after impact. “There may have been reflexive actions such as clutching the armrests of the seat,” the report said.
The blast from the warhead was detected on the cockpit voice recorder.
Russia described the report as politically motivated. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told journalists it reflected an “attempt to come to a biased conclusion and carry out political orders,” state news agency Tass reported.
No scenario other than the use of a Buk missile can explain the evidence found, Mr. Joustra said. The main theory propagated in Russia after the crash was that Ukrainian jet fighters shot down MH17, but Mr. Joustra said the wreckage showed clearly that an air-to-air attack didn't down the Boeing 777.
Crash investigators said Malaysia Airlines complied with international air safety rules in planning the flight. On the day of the crash, until the airspace was closed after the shootdown, 160 airliners traversed the skies of eastern Ukraine.
The airline said it welcomed the publication of the report and would continue to work with authorities and support families of those who died in the crash.
Last week, air safety authorities issued a warning to airlines after Russia fired a barrage of cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea against targets in Syria. Several carriers, including Malaysia Airlines, have rerouted planes in response.
The Dutch Safety Board urged airlines to undertake their own risk assessments. “Operators will have to gather information about conflict areas more actively and share relevant information on threats with each other,” it said.
Governments that have information about potential threats should also do more to disseminate that information, crash investigators said. International rules on how risks are judged should be tightened, the investigators advised.
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