MH17 wreckage recovery 'finished'
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E-mail Xinhua, November 24, 2014
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The wreckage of flight MH17 |
The recovery of the wreckage of flight MH17 has been completed, the Dutch Safety Board, leading the investigation into the crash in eastern Ukraine, announced on Sunday.
The recovery of the wreckage started one week ago, on Sunday November 16. Twelve trains with the recovered wreckage are now underway from Torez towards Kharkiv. A few parts of wreckage were too big for transport by train and arrived in the Ukrainian city by truck on Saturday already.
After the arrival in Kharkiv the remaining wreckage will be prepared for transportation to the Netherlands. The Safety Board stated that it is not yet clear when and in what way this transport will be carried out.
Despite the difficult circumstances and the local unstable safety-situation, the team was able to work as planned under the guidance of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and supported by local services.
According to the Dutch Safety Board there is still wreckage left at the crash site, but mainly smaller pieces with no value for the investigation. Local services will remove those pieces from the site.
The Board has commissioned the recovery of the wreckage for the investigation into the cause of the crash. This includes a (partial) reconstruction of the aircraft. The Malaysian Airlines flight crashed on July 17, killing 298 people.
On September 9 the Safety Board issued its first preliminary report, stating the crash had an external cause, probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside. There are no indications that the crash was caused by a technical fault or by actions of the crew.
During the recovery activities members of the Dutch repatriation and recovery mission found new human remains were found as well. These remains will undergo a forensic check in Kharkiv and will be transported for identification to the Netherlands in due course. According to the last count of the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice a total of 289 victims have been identified yet.
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