Dutch experts refute accusations of careless MH17 wreckage handling

World November 11, 2014, 17:11

Preparations are underway for removal of remaining plane wreckage by train

THE HAGUE, November 11. /TASS/. Experts visited on Tuesday the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine, where preparations are underway for removal of remaining plane wreckage by train, Wim van der Weegen, spokesman for the Dutch Safety Board, told TASS.

The spokesman could not say how long the process would take. He said Dutch specialist will be very careful in handling the wreckage.

“We know which exactly parts of the plane we want to get, but we won’t make this information public,” he said. The spokesman said cooperation continued with all interested parties, including with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He did not elaborate further.

Earlier the transport minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Semyon Kuzmenko, told TASS that the way Dutch investigators were handling plane wreckage was practically destroying evidence that could help shed the light on the crash of a Malaysian Boeing over Ukraine.

He also expressed doubt that debris could be safely removed by train, also citing plans to cut some wreckage for the sake of convenient transportation.

Decision by the Netherlands to remove and reconstruct parts of the plane was announced on November 6. Experts believe this will help investigators looking into the crash.

A Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 298 people crashed in east Ukraine on July 17 on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Both sides in Ukraine’s conflict accused each other of shooting down the plane with a missile. There were no survivors. Most of the victims, 193, were Dutch nationals.

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