International experts resume work at Boeing tragedy site in Ukraine

KIEV, August 4 (Itar-Tass) - Over 100 Dutch and Australian experts and observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) resumed search for the bodies of victims from a Malaysian airliner that crashed last month in the Donetsk Region in east Ukraine, the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine reported on Monday. Experts from the Netherlands and Australia have been working at the Boeing airliner crash site for the fourth consecutive day with the support of eight employees of the OSCE special monitoring mission in Ukraine. Their task is to search for the bodies of those killed in the air crash and their personal belongings. “Eight observers from the OSCE special monitoring mission arrived at the crash scene of the MH17 [flight] along with over 100 experts [from the Netherlands and Australia] with trained rescue dogs,” the mission said. “A long day of intensive work to recover remains [of victims] is ahead of them.” Experts earlier reported finding remains of some passengers over the past days of searching but did not specify the number. Discovered remains of the bodies and personal belongings are expected to be taken by plane to the Netherlands today on Monday. International specialists have been daily arriving at the airliner crash site near the settlement of Gabovo, 79 km (49 miles) north of Donetsk, since Thursday, July 31. Before that, they had not been able to carry out their search operation for a week over incessant fighting between the local self-defense militia and pro-Kiev troops. The search resumed after the warring sides agreed on a ceasefire around the airliner wreckage area and a security corridor for the arrival of experts and their work at the crash site. The OSCE has not reported about any incidents in the search operation and said that international experts have been able to cross the territories controlled by self-defense fighters and pro-Kiev troops fairly safely. A Boeing-777 of the Malaysia Airlines (flight MH17) en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on July 17 in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Region 60 km from the Russian border, in the zone of combat operations between the Donetsk self-defense forces and the Ukrainian army. All the passengers and crewmembers onboard the plane - 298 people - died. Most of the passengers - 196 people - were Dutch citizens. Over 200 bodies were found during the first few days after the airliner crash. Learn more on itar-tass.com