LONDON, July 22. /Roman Podervyansky for ITAR-TASS/. Militiamen in Ukraine have handed over the flight recorders of the crashed Boeing to Malaysian experts, Reuters news agency reports.

It has been reported that the black boxes were passed by the head of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Borodai, and both parties signed a record on this procedure.

“I can see that the black boxes are intact, although a bit damaged. In good condition,” Colonel Mohamed Sakri of Malaysia said. He thanked Alexander Borodai for handing the recorders to representatives of the country, to which the misfortunate jet belonged.

Meanwhile, Borodai informed journalists that the railroad train with the victims’ bodies arrived in Donetsk and proceeded to Kharkiv.

According to The New Straits Times newspaper, Malaysian authorities intend to bring the flight recorders from the Boeing to the homeland. The newspaper says it is yet “difficult to supposehow it would be done, although the works are in progress”.

July 19, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak stated that his country has an exclusive right of access to the airliner’s flight recorders. “According to international law, only the plane’s owner has all the rights for the flight data recorders,” Razak explained. “Those, who do not have such rights for the black boxes, shouldn’t embezzle them”. In this regard, the head of the Malaysian cabinet demanded from all parties to comply with international law.

Who will investigate the catastrophe

Earlier, the Netherlands agreed to lead the investigation of the Malaysian Boeing crash. The investigation will be carried out “in close cooperation with the countries concerned, the UN and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)”.

In addition, on Monday, the UN Security Council has adopted a resolution regarding the airliner’s crash. The resolution under number 2166 condemns in the strongest possible terms the actions that had caused the plane to be shot down and called for a through and independent investigation of the accident in accordance the international civil aviation guidelines.

 

MH17 crash versions

At present, many share the opinion that the Malaysian airliner was shot down with a missile. However, there are precisely opposite views on who could do this.

Ukrainian secret services have published a recording of a conversation between the militiamen, during which the elimination of the Malaysian Boeing is allegedly discussed. However, a group of experts that studied the recording drew a conclusion that it was a paste-up of many unrelated conversation.

US President Barack Obama stated that the airliner was shot down with a missile fired from a territory controlled by separatists. In his view, the separatists constantly receive assistance from Russia that consists in weapon supplies and training. On Monday, a representative of the US State Department stated that militias have the Buk anti-aircraft missile systems with reference to social networks.

July 21, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that it had at its disposal space images with the locations of air defense systems of the Ukrainian army, which confirm that in the day of Boeing’s crash, one of the Buk systems was moved towards the militia-controlled area.

In addition, according to the Defense Ministry, Russian recorders detected a Ukrainian Su-25 jet, which allegedly was flying in the direction of the Boeing. Head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces General-Lieutenant Andrei Kartapolov said that the qualities of Su-25 allow it to reach an altitude of 10 km. This jet is equipped with R-60 air-to-air missiles that are able to hit targets on a maximum range of 12 km and a guaranteed range of up to 5 km.

 

The tragedy of the Malaysian airliner

Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines on Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed July 17 in the evening in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. All the 298 people that were on board are declared dead. According to the air carrier, there are citizens of Malaysia, the Netherlands, Australia, Indonesia, the UK, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand among the crash victims.