All news

International experts comb one more site at Boeing crash area in eastern Ukraine

No human remains were found on Tuesday

THE HAGUE, August 05. /ITAR-TASS/. International experts have finished search operations at one more site in the Malaysian Boeing crash area in eastern Ukraine, head of fact-finding mission Peter Jap Albersberg said on Tuesday. 

He said the experts had combed a vasty area near the village of Rassypnoye in the Donetsk region. The operations had been interrupted now and then due to negotiations OSCE observers had to hold with the local parties. The experts had found some personal belongings of the ill-fortune plane passengers, he said, adding that these things had been sent to the Ukrainian town of Soledar, from where they would be later taken to Kharkov for forensic examination.

He said that no human remains had been found on Tuesday. He hailed the local residents and authorities for the great deal of work done to recover human remains immediately after the crash. That is why, he said, international experts were finding mostly personal belongings. He thanked locals for their help in organizing the mission.

He noted that the situation in the region was difficult, which limited the mission possibilities. He said that due to armed clashes access to the crash site could not be 100% guaranteed. Thus, on Monday, experts could not reach the site for several hours.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that search operations at the site had involved 110 experts from Australia, the Netherlands and Malaysia, and nine OSCE observers. The mission, which has been on the site from August 1, is tasked to recover human remains and personal belongings of the crash victims.

A Boeing-777 of the Malaysia Airlines (flight MH17) en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Region 60 km from the Russian border, in the zone of combat operation between the Donetsk self-defence forces and the Ukrainian army. All the passengers and crewmembers onboard the plane - 298 people - died. Most of the passengers - 196 people - were Dutch citizens.