A Dutch Safety Board report describes in detail the moment a missile exploded, downing Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

LISTEN ABOVE: Reporter in Amsterdam Matthijs van de Wiel joins Rachel Smalley on the KPMG Eary Edition to discuss the Dutch Safety Board Report that has been released.

Two hundred and 98 people were killed in the tragedy in July last year.

Reporter Matthijs van de Wiel said this report confirms what everyone outside of Russia already knew or expected - that it was a Russian-made missile.

He said as it exploded less than a metre from the aircraft, the shrapnel hit the cockpit, and led to the plane breaking up in the air.

It took just one and a half minutes for the plane to crash.

He said anyone onboard not killed immediately wouldn't have had time to know what was happening.

"The only thing they could have done is maybe hold the chairs tighter or something like that..it was very sad. The report states that it is very improbable that they realised what happened."

The report does not say who fired the missile, but says airspace over eastern Ukraine should have been closed.

It states the 61 airlines which continued to fly there should have recognised the potential danger.

Around 160 aircraft used the same route as MH17 on the day of the crash.