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Ukraine workers 'chased off' MH17 crash site

Updated 17.30 The head of Ukraine's emergency services has said his workers have been chased away...
Newstalk
Newstalk

09.22 24 Jul 2014


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Ukraine workers 'chase...

Ukraine workers 'chased off' MH17 crash site

Newstalk
Newstalk

09.22 24 Jul 2014


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Updated 17.30

The head of Ukraine's emergency services has said his workers have been chased away from the MH17 crash site by pro-Russian rebels.

Speaking to journalists at a press conference in Kharkiv, Serhiy Bochkovskiy said emergency services personnel also had some of their equipment confiscated.

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Mr Bochkoskiy added his workers did not open body bags when they prepared them to be removed and that the transportation of victims' remains was done in "a very proper way".

When asked how difficult the work was, he replied "We are human beings, we are made of flesh and blood, not of steel and stone. So when we work with those remains, the remains of human beings, we are both sad and angry".

Also speaking was Jan Tuinder, a forensics expert with the Dutch National Police who said it had been hard for investigators to gain access to some of the bodies.

"There are still some lunatics, it's very hard for us to get to the bodies, to get to the remains" he said. "You call them terrorists, to me it's criminal; well, it's very nearly the same".

Meanwhile investigators are to begin examining a second black box from the downed Malaysia Airlines plane.

An international team working in Britain has already carried out an analysis of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from flight MH17, which was shot down over eastern Ukraine with 298 people on board.

The Dutch Safety Board (DSB) said an examination of the flight data recorder (FDR) will get under way today.

It said "This will show whether this recorder also contains relevant information, in which case the data from both recorders will be combined". No manipulation of the damaged CVR was found, and its memory module was intact".

"Following the examination, the CVR data was successfully downloaded and contained valid data from the flight" the DSB said.

"The downloaded data have to be further analysed and investigated".

The information from the CVR could reveal whether the pilots were aware of a missile coming towards the Boeing 777-200, which had taken off from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport and was bound for Kuala Lumpur.

What happened during the last few seconds of the flight could also be disclosed in any words the pilots were able to speak. The FDR could give an indication of the differences in speed and pitch of the jet after it was hit.

Meanwhile more bodies of passengers and crew will be flown from Ukraine to the Netherlands - where the majority of the victims were from.

Cintia Taylor is a Dutch-based journalist. She told Newstalk Breakfast earlier the whole process could take months to complete.

While EU envoys are meeting to discuss which associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin could face sanctions if Moscow does not comply with European demands over Ukraine.

Pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow have been blamed for the attack, although a US official said this week there was no evidence of direct Russian government involvement.

Expert Michael Bociurkiw, who is at the crash site, says there is some evidence the plane was shot down.

Foreign ministers agreed on Tuesday to add, what British Prime Minister David Cameron called, Mr. Putin's "cronies" to the list of those being punished for their role in the crisis.

Yesterday, the first bodies from the flight arrived in the Netherlands, where the majority of the victims were from. 40 coffins were unloaded from two military planes in Eindhoven.

Bells tolled throughout the country on what was a day of mourning for those who died. The coffins were taken away in hearses to be identified, a process that could take weeks.

Last night in Amsterdam, a parade of people, dressed in white, took to the streets to show their respects.


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