Malaysian airliner MH17 crashed in Ukraine

[Darth Penguin]

Is this the moment a rebel stole plane victim's ring? Outrage as picture emerges showing militiaman rifling through MH17 wreckage

A photograph widely circulating on social media last night purported to show a Russian separatist fighter stealing a ring from a victim of the MH17 crash. In the picture, which has not been independently verified, three rebels wearing military uniforms appear to be rifling through the wreckage.
A blonde-haired fighter, wearing a black beret, is bent over what looks like wreckage and apparently holding what seems to be a gold ring.

The militia leader who shot the film, named only as ‘Zhuk’, tried to justify his men’s actions.

‘We looked at their belongings because we were searching for documents. Then we put them in a truck and took them away for sorting,’ he told the BBC.


The controversy comes after leaders blasted pro-Russian rebels working on the site for 'manhandling' the bodies.
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans told Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko that his country was 'angry' and 'furious' by reports of bodies being dragged around the site in Grabovo, Donetsk.

'We are already shocked by the news we got today of bodies being dragged around, of the site not being treated properly,' he said.

Ukrainian officials accused pro-Russian separatists of taking bodies from the scene of the crash before emergency services personnel began officially collecting them on Saturday.

[Natalka]

^There have been reports of stolen credit cards already being used.
Just so sad.

Thank goodness now the bodies are on their way to where identifications can be done safely. Black boxes getting in the proper hands.

[Natalka]

Train with remains of Malaysian plane crash victims arrives in Kharkiv

Kharkiv, July 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) - A train carrying the remains of the victims of the crash of the Malaysian Boeing 777-200 plane arrived in Kharkiv from Donetsk at 1125.

An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that the train had approached the Kharkiv-Balashivsky station. After the locomotive is changed, it will be moved to the Malyshev Plant, where the bodies are to be loaded into special equipment brought from the Netherlands.

The train consists of five refrigerated cars and a conventional passenger car with the inscription "Donetsk-Moscow."

The train is currently guarded by police.

[Natalka]

Arseniy Yantseniuk, Prime Minister of Ukraine

Ukraine is ready to transfer to the Dutch side the co-ordinating role in investigating the MH17 crash.

The Government is ready to transport the bodies of the victims for forensic examination to Amsterdam, which has one of the most advanced forensic laboratories in the world. The Government's firm position is to ensure a comprehensive and transparent international investigation of this international crime.

The Russian Government did nothing to assist the Government's agencies, emergency services and the international community with obtaining unfettered access to the crash site. We used all possible measures, including unofficial lines of communication, and managed to collect the bodies and some evidence about this terrible tragedy.

[Darth Penguin]

WBC being b@$tards again

[Natalka]

22 July 2014 INTERPOL response team in Ukraine starts identification process of flight MH 17 victims

KHARKIV, Ukraine – Members of INTERPOL’s Incident Response Team (IRT) in Kharkiv, Ukraine have started the disaster victim identification (DVI) process following the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 17.

The remains of victims recovered so far were labelled and numbered before being transported in refrigerated freight wagons from Donetsk to the designated centre of operations in Kharkiv where the INTERPOL IRT, along with other international DVI teams in place, will carry out preliminary examinations.


The 10-strong IRT is currently comprised of three Dutch DVI specialists, one of whom is the IRT leader, four INTERPOL officials, a Brazilian forensics expert and current chair of the INTERPOL DVI Steering Group and representatives from Europol and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).


Once the preliminary examinations are completed, is it expected that the victims will be transported to the Netherlands where the full DVI process will be carried out in accordance with INTERPOL standards.


http://www.interpol.int/News-and-med...2014/N2014-135

[Lynn49]

Is anyone else watching the sad arrival of the murder victims of the MH 17 in Netherlands?
So respectful, so beautifully planned....so terribly sad.....

[Natalka]

Lynn, I missed the beginning, watching now.

[Lynn49]

Mhm...so 40 victims have arrived in the two planes so far...will more arrive today? I couldn't find info on that.

[Natalka]

As of last night, 200 bodies were in Kharkiv - that's where Interpol and others are doing preliminary identification.

Just read that Dutch officials say they have the 200.

[Natalka]

Dutch air accident investigators say they have found no evidence that the black box voice recorder on MH17 was tampered with.

The recorders were delivered to the headquarters of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Farnborough, south-west of London, earlier on Wednesday.
AAIB experts will have access to the cockpit voice recorder, providing hours of pilots' conversations, as well as the contents of the flight data recorder.
The flight data recorder will reveal the time of the incident and the altitude and position of the aircraft, while the cockpit voice recorder will reveal what the crew knew was happening before disaster struck.



- investigators from the Dutch Safety Board, who are watching the AAIB UK team, say the cockpit voice recorder was damaged but the memory module was intact. "No evidence or indications of manipulation of the Cockpit Voice Recorder was found," it adds.

The cockpit voice recorder data "was successfully downloaded and contained valid data from the flight," which the Dutch investigators say will be further analysed and investigated.

The flight data recorder will be examined tomorrow, Dutch investigators say.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28446033

[Darth Penguin]

Dutch foreign minister's speech

The same day at the United Nations, the Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans made a moving speech at the Security Council. The majority of the 298 people who died on MH 17 were Dutch citizens. "For the Netherlands, one priority clearly stands out above all others: bring the victims remains home."
Timmermans went on, expressing shock and disgust at the way the situation has been handled so far. "Until I die, I will not understand that it took so long before rescue workers were able to do their difficult job in Ukraine," he said, "and that human remains were used as a political game. I hope that I never have to see that again." You can watch his full statement above.

[Lynn49]

Dutch foreign minister's speech

Darth, I watched a clip of his heart-breaking speech today...he was visibly shaken, as was Anderson Cooper when he introduced the clip on the anniversary of his brother's suicide......

[Lynn49]

Another missing plane! An Air Algeria plane missing, lost contact 50min after take-off....may have been involved with severe weather and had to divert....may have flown through restricted air space.
116 on board.

[Natalka]

Gee... five Canadians on board

http://globalnews.ca/news/1470890/pa...a-faso-report/