SINGAPORE, November 4. /TASS/. Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak insists on the need to continue investigations into the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 “despite the turmoil on the ground”.
“I reiterate Malaysia’s commitment to the families of the passengers and crew of MH17 and the fact that justice must be served on the criminals who caused this heinous act,” he was quoted as saying by Tuesday’s New Straits Times.
Malaysia's civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said in an interview to the Singaporean paper: “The cold winter weather, which is about to begin soon, and lack of manpower is the main challenge faced by investigators right now.”
He also said facilities and equipment used at the crash site area might be limited because of Donetsk’s remote location, adding that investigators might not be able to conduct immediate analysis and screenings of the wreckage there.
Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said on Sunday that MH17 investigators were given the green light to re-enter the crash site within a couple of weeks, regardless of deteriorating weather conditions.
“If possible, we want to bring back all the parts for it (the plane) to be reconstructed so that investigators can determine where and how it was hit,” he said, noting that evidence and wreckage parts would be sent to the Netherlands first as investigations were being led by the Dutch.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on July 17, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.
The Dutch Safety Board, leading the investigation and coordinating the international team of investigators, said in its preliminary report in early September that “flight MH17 with a Boeing 777-200 operated by Malaysia Airlines broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.