MH17 Gross Mass Murder: Coroner

May 17, 2016

A NSW Coroner inquiring into the death of Sr Philomene Tiernan, and five other NSW residents on board the doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, handed down his findings on Tuesday.

The six were among 38 Australians killed when the Boeing 777 exploded in the sky over Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

Coroner Michael Barnes found the six deaths were “part of a gross, mass murder”, the result of a high altitude aircraft disintegration caused by the detonation of a warhead.

“The fatal injuries were inflicted as a result of a person or persons who has or have not yet been identified, deliberately firing a missile equipped with an exploding warhead at the jetliner in which the deceased persons were passengers, causing it to disintegrate at high altitude,” he said.

The Dutch Safety Board has previously stated that a Russian-made warhead launched from a Buk surface-to-air missile detonated within a metre of the cockpit, causing the plane to break up.

Relatives and friends of the six NSW victims shared their grief during the hearing in the Coroner’s Court at Glebe.

A friend of Sr Philomena, fellow nun Sr Joan Pender, gave thanks for the life of her friend.

“Death is not a departing from life but a returning to its heart,” she said.

Sr Philomene, the sister of the late Murgon publican Dermot Tiernan, was returning to Australia after a European trip which included the memorial service at Dodewaard for her uncle Patrick Tiernan, killed during World War II.

Australian Federal Police officers are assisting with the international criminal investigation into the MH17 disaster.

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