MOSCOW, July 18 (RIA Novosti) — Russia has no plans to obtain flight recorders of the Malaysian aircraft that crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.
"We think that international experts should arrive at the crash site as soon as possible and obtain the black boxes immediately. Contrary to Kiev’s statements, we do not plan to violate the norms that exist in the international community for such cases," Lavrov said.
"This is the business of ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization] and the countries directly linked to this tragedy — the Netherlands, Malaysia and other states whose citizens were on board, and of course, Ukraine," the minister added.
On Friday, rescue workers allegedly recovered two black boxes from the airplane. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said early in the day that one flight recorder from the plane had been found by local militia forces. The second black box recovery was later reported by Reuters, citing an eyewitness.
Commenting on the tragedy, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a transparent and unbiased investigation into the crash.
Ukrainian authorities, Malaysia Airlines are already investigating the incident. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), Interpol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are all expected to join the investigation.
