KIEV, July 23 (RIA Novosti) – The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) could have handed over recordings of conversations between air traffic control and Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 to US analysts in Kiev, a Ukraine government source said Wednesday.
"Everyone is in a hurry realizing that the international commission could seize all physical evidence. Soon, there will be no access to it, no opportunity to examine it anymore," the source added.
Earlier, a number of media outlets reported that the SBU confiscated tapes of conversations between Ukrainian air traffic control officers and the crew of Malaysia Airlines plane that crashed last week.
The flight recorders recovered from the wreckage of the plane were delivered to Britain to be analyzed under the supervision of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The Malaysia Airlines plane with 298 people on board, including 85 children, was downed on July 17 near the town of Torez in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Region. There were no survivors.
Ukrainian government and militia have been trading blame for the alleged downing of the airliner, with independence supporters saying they lacked the technology to shoot down a target flying at altitude of 33,000 feet.
Russia believes the investigation should be carried out by an international group of specialists under the aegis of ICAO.
