First truckload of wreckage from MH17 removed from crash site
Local emergency services in eastern Ukraine have removed the first pieces of wreckage from Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 which crashed in July.
The parts are bound for the Netherlands, where investigators will reconstruct the airliner to try to find the cause of the crash.
All 298 people on board were killed, two thirds of them Dutch citizens.
Dutch inspectors had hoped to collect the parts themselves, but they remained concerned about their safety in Ukraine's rebel-held conflict zone.
Instead the Dutch Safety Board commissioned Ukraine's State Emergency Service to collect the parts themselves.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) REPRESENTATIVE OF LOCAL MINISTRY OF EMERGENCY, ALEXEI KOSTRUBATSKY, SAYING:
"The Dutch side decides what parts of debris they need to take away. They put stickers on them and mark the numbers of the debris. And we load them."
The integrity of the site and the safety of investigators have been major concerns since the plane was down
The parts are bound for the Netherlands, where investigators will reconstruct the airliner to try to find the cause of the crash.
All 298 people on board were killed, two thirds of them Dutch citizens.
Dutch inspectors had hoped to collect the parts themselves, but they remained concerned about their safety in Ukraine's rebel-held conflict zone.
Instead the Dutch Safety Board commissioned Ukraine's State Emergency Service to collect the parts themselves.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) REPRESENTATIVE OF LOCAL MINISTRY OF EMERGENCY, ALEXEI KOSTRUBATSKY, SAYING:
"The Dutch side decides what parts of debris they need to take away. They put stickers on them and mark the numbers of the debris. And we load them."
The integrity of the site and the safety of investigators have been major concerns since the plane was down