MH17 Wreckage Headed for Dutch Air Base for Probe: Dutch Safety Board

NEW YORK, December 1 (Sputnik) – The wreckage of downed Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight will be loaded onto trucks and transported by road to the Netherlands for investigation this week, the Dutch Safety Board said Monday.

"The wreckage from flight MH17 recovered in the disaster area on instructions of the Dutch Safety Board will be loaded on trucks and transported to the Netherlands during the coming week," the agency, which is responsible for the crash probe, said in a statement.

According to the safety board, once the wreckage has arrived in the Netherlands, it will be stored and investigated at the Gilze Rijen Air Base, which is also the location where part of the aircraft will be reconstructed.

"The transport of the wreckage has been prepared by the Ministry of Defense, and the first trucks will be loaded today," the board added in a statement. "After loading, the trucks will depart for the Netherlands in separate convoys over the course of the week. The first of these convoys will arrive at the Gilze Rijen Air Base next week. The exact date will be announced later."

On July 17, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

According to a preliminary report issued by the Dutch Safety Board in September, the plane most likely broke up in mid-air because of structural damage from a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from the outside.

Kiev has accused independence supporters in eastern Ukraine of shooting the plane down, but a full investigation is yet to be completed. Local militia leaders say that they do not have weapons capable of striking an aircraft flying at 32,000 feet.