MAS: MH17 plane had 'clean bill of health'

KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 ― The Boeing 777-200ER used for Flight MH17 that went down in strife-torn eastern Ukraine yesterday with 298 on board had a clean maintenance record, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) said today.

“The B777-200 aircraft bearing registration no. 9M-MRD that operated MH17 on 17 July, 2014 had a clean maintenance record,” the national carrier said in a statement here.

The aircraft's last maintenance check was on July 11 and it was scheduled to undergo another check on August 27 at MAS' hangar at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

 “The aircraft had a clean bill of health. The aircraft was manufactured in July 1997, and so had 17 years in service,” MAS added, saying that the the aircraft had recorded 75322 flight hours with a total of 11434 cycles.

The B777-200 uses the Rolls-Royce Trent-800 engine and has a 282-seat capacity.

Flight MH17 crashed late last night and is believed to have been shot down by a Russian-made air defence missile.