Flight Recorders of Crashed Malaysian Boeing to Be Analyzed in UK

KIEV, July 22 (RIA Novosti) — The flight recorders of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 that crashed in eastern Ukraine last week will be analyzed by experts in the United Kingdom, the Ukrainian government said Tuesday.
On Monday night, authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic handed over two flight data recorders, known as black boxes, recovered from the crash site to Malaysian representatives.
The republic’s prime minister, Alexander Boroday and his deputy Andrei Purgin signed a handover agreement, stating that experts from the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) are to get access to them.
According to the head of Malaysia’s delegation, the black boxes are in good condition.
The Ukrainian Cabinet said it had officially requested the Dutch government to lead the investigation. The Netherlands is expected to formally agree to the proposal soon.
«Once the issue is solved, experts of the Netherlands will document the handover of the [flight] recorders from Malaysian experts [to Dutch experts] and will send it to a British investigative bureau for deciphering," the Ukrainian Cabinet said in a statement.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, including 283 passengers and 15 crew members.
The Ukrainian military and independence supporters agreed on Monday on a ceasefire within a 40-kilometer zone around the crash site to provide access to the area for the international investigators. However now the sides dispute whether they agreed on a diameter of or a radius of 40 kilometers, and the Ukrainian Air Forces struck the city of Shakhtarsk located in 30 kilometers from the crash site.
The UN Security Council condemned the downing of the passenger plane and unanimously voted in support of a thorough and independent international investigation of the incident.
The 15-member council said in a resolution it «supports efforts to establish a full, thorough and independent international investigation into the incident in accordance with international civil aviation guidelines."