Investigators at the crash site.

Plane with MH17 bodies leaves for Netherlands; black box for UK

Russia ready to join probe; to influence rebels

Agency Report | Kiev | 23 July, 2014 | 09:40 PM

The first plane carrying the remains of the victims of the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 took off on Wednesday from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv for the Netherlands.

The military plane, which is heading for the city of Eindhoven, is carrying the bodies of 16 victims and is due to arrive at 4 p.m., when it will be met by members of the Dutch royal family, Xinhua reported.

Before the departure, a mourning ceremony was held at Kharkiv airport, attended by Ukrainian officials and representatives of embassies of the Netherlands, Canada, Britain, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia and the US.

During the ceremony, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman expressed his condolences and sympathy to the families who have lost their loved ones in the tragedy.

“On behalf of the president, the prime minister, the government and the whole Ukrainian people, I appeal to the relatives of the flight MH17 passengers, asking to accept our deepest condolences. We grieve with you,” Groysman said.

He voiced his country’s commitment to making every effort to find out the cause of the disaster and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Flight MH17, while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed last Thursday in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board. The dead included 193 Dutch nationals.

Reports indicated that the Boeing 777 crashed after being hit by a missile. US President Barack Obama said initial investigations showed that the missile was fired from an area in Ukraine controlled by anti-Kiev militants.

Although the Ukrainian government has said the search operation at the crash site has been completed, some international monitors argued that there was evidence of missing human remains in the area.
The two black boxes of the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 arrived in Britain on Wednesday for analysis, Ukraine’s investigation commission said.

The flight data recorders have been sent to a laboratory in Farnborough in southern England under the supervision of experts from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the commission said in a statement.

According to the statement, Ukraine did not extract the information from the black boxes before handing these over to international experts, Xinhua reported.

Earlier Monday, the rebels, including self-proclaimed prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Borodai, handed over the flight recorders of the ill-fated jetliner to Malaysian officials at a ceremony in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.

A refrigerated train with the remains of the victims arrived in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, outside rebel territory, Tuesday.

The officials said that 282 bodies as well as recovered parts of 16 other bodies were loaded on to the refrigerated train.

Flight MH17, a Boeing 777, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed after being hit by a missile in Ukraine near the Russian border last Thursday, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.

This is the second major tragedy for Malaysia Airlines this year after flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crew on board went missing while going from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing March 8. The flight remains untraced till date despite intense international search efforts.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that the crash site of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was still not secure and feared that the bodies of some Australian victims will never return.

Abbott said in a press conference that this situation would “be completely unacceptable for bereaved families in Australia and around the world” and called for a full forensic search of the site, Xinhua reported.

Abbot’s comments came as the bodies of the MH17 victims were being loaded onto military aircraft, including an Australian C-17 plane, at Kharkiv in Ukraine to be flown to the Netherlands.

Abbott said the recovery of human remains had been “quite unprofessional”.

“Based on early inspections, we do not know how many bodies we have,” Abbot said. “It is quite possible that many bodies are still out there in the open subjected to interference and the ravages of heat and animals. That is the predicament in which we find ourselves.”

Abbott said that he has been gaining support from other world leaders over the past few days in an effort to improve security at the crash site.

“There has been strong support for securing the site, because, obviously, it is at the heart of the UN resolution,” he said.

“I want to stress we will work with partners, we will work under the UN resolution and only under the UN resolution, but we will bring them home,” he said.
Russia is ready to join the international investigation led by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) into the crash.

“Russia is closely watching the investigation into the cause of the Malaysian plane accident,” Xinhua quoted Russia’s foreign ministry as saying in a statement.

Russia welcomed the transfer of the plane’s flight data recorders to Malaysian officials. “We hope that they will subsequently be handed over to the ICAO-led international group of experts whom Russia is ready to join.”

The UN Security Council Monday unanimously adopted a resolution demanding access to the crash site and “a full, thorough and independent international investigation” into the incident.

Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasised the need to urge Kiev authorities for investigating the crash.

“We’ll do everything possible to influence militia in the eastern Ukraine,” Putin said at a Russian Security Council meeting Tuesday. “But it is insufficient. It is necessary to urge the Kiev authorities to observe the basic norms of decency and cease fire for the investigation.”

He expressed indignation over Ukraine’s tank attack against Donetsk when the black boxes were given to Malaysian experts by the militia.

Putin also said Russia will maintain further contacts with partners to resolve issues for a transparent and thorough investigation of the tragedy. (IANS)