MH17 black box confirms plane was hit by a missile - Toowoomba Chronicle

An unnamed European air safety official told CBS News on Sunday (Australian time) that the missile "did what it was designed to do ... bring down airplanes". AFP PHOTO - AFPTV - Damien Simonart

DATA retrieved from the ill-fated MH17 flight black box shows the plane was hit multiple times by shrapnel from a missile explosion.

European officials have described the finding as "massive explosive decompression" as the clean-up of the wreckage site continues in Grabovo, Ukraine.

An unnamed European air safety official told CBS News on Sunday (Australian time) that the missile "did what it was designed to do ... bring down airplanes".

Personal belongings, passports and identification cards are still being found, along with human remains scattered around the site.

It has been more than a week since the Malaysian Airlines plane was blown out of the skies above Ukraine killing 298 people including 37 Australian citizens or permanent residents.

It is widely believed Russian-backed militants fired the surface-to-air missile after mistaking it for a Ukrainian military plane.