MOSCOW, September 19 (RIA Novosti) – Specialists have already identified 224 victims of the MH17 flight crash in Ukraine, Ukrainian agency UNN reported Friday.
“Malaysian Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai said Thursday that the Dutch forensic experts have identified the remains of 224 victims of the plane crash, and experts are working on identification of another 74 victims. Furthermore, he added that five Malaysians were among the recently identified victims,” UNN reported.
On July 17, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk, killing all 298 people on board.
The reason for the crash is still a matter of debate. Kiev accuses independence supporters in eastern Ukraine of shooting the plane down, but cannot provide any evidence for this assertion. The local militia leaders say they do not have weapons capable of shooting down a plane flying at 32,000 feet.
On September 9, the Dutch Safety Board issued a preliminary report on the crash, saying that the plane broke up in the air probably as a result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from the outside.
The investigation was conducted according to standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations. The only objective of this investigation is the prevention of similar accidents and incidents.
The Dutch Safety Board does not have the right to apportion blame or responsibility on any party.
