{"id":145248,"date":"2016-05-17T21:10:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T11:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=145248"},"modified":"2020-10-14T15:41:35","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T05:41:35","slug":"mh17-gross-mass-murder-coroner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/05\/17\/mh17-gross-mass-murder-coroner\/","title":{"rendered":"MH17 Gross Mass Murder: Coroner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sr Philomene Tiernan … on board Malaysian flight
(Photo: Julia Charles)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 17, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The six were among 38 Australians killed when the Boeing 777 exploded in the sky over Ukraine on July 17, 2014.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Relatives and friends of the six NSW victims shared their grief during the hearing in the Coroner’s Court at Glebe.<\/p>\n

A friend of Sr Philomena, fellow nun Sr Joan Pender, gave thanks for the life of her friend.<\/p>\n

“Death is not a departing from life but a returning to its heart,” she said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Australian Federal Police officers are assisting with the international criminal investigation into the MH17 disaster.<\/p>\n

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