Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Rebels hand over MH17 black boxes

Rebels hand over MH17 black boxes

1 comment:

  1. ... Both black boxes, which record cockpit activity and flight data, were handed to Malaysian officials by the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Borodai, in front of scores of journalists.

    Borodai also announced a ceasefire within 10 kilometres of the site, hours after the pro-Western authorities in Kiev said they would halt all fighting in the zone.

    His rebel forces had Monday had allowed Dutch forensic experts to examine the bodies, kept in refrigerated train cars away from the sweltering summer heat.

    International monitors were also finally given freedom to examine the vast crash site, littered with poignant fragments from hundreds of destroyed lives.


    - Black boxes 'intact' -


    Despite the apparent progress in getting the investigation going, leaders warned the rebels' handling of the crash site had already done much damage.

    Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose country lost 28 citizens and nine residents in the crash, said: "There is still a long, long way to go."

    "After the crime comes the cover-up," he added. "What we have seen is evidence tampering on an industrial scale. That has to stop."

    Experts from Malaysia Airlines, reeling from its second disaster in only four months after flight MH370 went missing in the Indian Ocean, said the black boxes were "intact with only minor damage."

    "We have not found the black boxes from flight MH370, so (we) are happy to be able to recover these," said a member of the team.

    The struggling airline meanwhile had to defend itself late Monday after confirming it had diverted a flight from Ukrainian to Syrian airspace.

    "The Syrian airspace was not subject to restrictions," the flag carrier said in a statement.


    - Russian riposte -
    ...../-

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