MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – The Dutch investigative team has restarted its work at the MH17 crash site in Ukraine to monitor the search for personal belongings and remains of the 298 people killed in the July crash, the Star reported on Tuesday.
"Trucks are at the scene to take what's found somewhere before they're returned to the Netherlands," Dutch Justice Ministry spokesman Jean Fransman said in a statement, cited by AFP.
Ukrainian emergency workers started the search operation on Monday to retrieve body parts and personal belongings of those killed in the catastrophe. According to Fransman, Ukrainian specialists have managed to find several ID documents, pictures, clothes and travel bags.
As reported by Voice of America, the search operation is being monitored by four Dutch specialists along with OSCE workers. The Dutch specialists stopped their work in the area at the beginning of August due to conflict between Ukrainian military forces and independence supporters in southeastern Ukraine as well as lack of access to the crush site. The work has been resumed as the ceasefire agreement between the two rival parties was signed and put into force. However, according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) shelling of the area still continues.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed near the city of Torez in eastern Ukraine on July, 17.
The details of the crash remain obscure. A preliminary report released by the Dutch Safety Board in September stated that the plane was probably hit "by a large number of high-energy objects" that pierced the machine from the outside.