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Malaysia Plans to Search Crash Site of Flight 17 Malaysia Plans to Search Crash Site of Flight 17
(about 2 hours later)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia plans to send a search team to the crash site in Ukraine of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 before winter sets in to gather physical evidence to prove the plane was shot down, Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday. BANGKOK — Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia said on Saturday that his government was seeking further evidence to build a criminal case in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which exploded over eastern Ukraine in July.
Mr. Najib said the government had “pretty conclusive” intelligence reports about what happened to the jet carrying 298 people, but evidence must be collected so that its downing could be proved beyond a doubt if the case went to court. “What we need to do next is to assemble physical evidence that can be brought to court when the time comes so that it will be proven beyond any doubt that the plane was shot down,” Mr. Najib was quoted by news agencies as saying at a media briefing in Putrajaya, the Malaysian administrative capital.
“That’s why we are very, very keen to re-enter the crash site before winter sets in,” Mr. Najib said at a joint news conference with Tony Abbott, the Australian prime minister. “We need at least a few weeks not only to search for the body parts of victims but to assemble physical evidence.” Dutch investigators are scheduled to release a preliminary report on Tuesday into what brought down the flight, which was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
“Once that process is completed, we will look at the criminal side, who is responsible for this atrocious crime,” Mr. Najib said. The United States says the jet was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile that was most likely provided to separatists in Ukraine by Russia.
The plane fell from the sky on July 17 while flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russia separatists. There were no survivors. Searches of the crash site were halted on Aug. 6 because of fighting in the immediate area. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has said that the Ukrainian government is responsible for the downing of the aircraft because it took place over its territory.
Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine have publicly denied responsibility for shooting down the plane. In July, Mr. Najib successfully brokered a deal with separatist rebels to hand over the aircraft’s black boxes and remains of the passengers and crew.
Victims came from 10 different nations. Most of them were Dutch, but there were also a number of Malaysians and Australians. Remains of many victims were gathered in the days after the crash and flown to the Netherlands for identification. The remains of 183 people have been identified so far. Mr. Najib said on Saturday that it would take “at least a few weeks” to search for more remains of passengers and other “physical evidence.”
The Netherlands is conducting its own investigation into the disaster, and it is also coordinating criminal investigations by multiple countries, including Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine. “Once that process is completed, we will look at the criminal side, who is responsible for this atrocious crime,” he said at a joint media briefing with Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia, who was on a one-day visit to Malaysia.
The Dutch authorities have said they will publish a preliminary report into the disaster on Tuesday. The report will set out what investigators believe happened, but will not apportion blame. The two leaders also discussed the construction of a memorial for the victims of Flight 370, which disappeared over the Indian Ocean on March 8. The two leaders said their governments would each spend about $55 million in the search for that aircraft.