MH17 Black Boxes Not Tempered with, Says Minister

SEPANG (Selangor) July 26 (Bernama) - Transport Minister Dr Liow Tiong on Friday confirmed that information from black boxes recovered from the wreckage of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was not tempered with. He said international investigators were in the midst of extracting the information, including the cockpit voice recorder as well as contents of the flight data recorder and that it would be documented. "The black boxes have been opened and they were not tampered with. The content of the conversation in the cockpit can be heard clearly. Details will be reviewed by the investigation committee...we want the truth about the incident," he told reporters upon arrival from Amsterdam at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) here Friday. The black boxes were delivered to Farnborough, southwest of London by the Dutch Safety Board (OVV), which is leading the international investigation into the crash. Liow said efforts to transfer bodies of victims from the crash site to Eindhoven, Netherlands would continue until this Sunday. He said more than 20 Disaster Victim Identification personnel from Malaysia were in Amsterdam to assist Dutch experts in identifying the remains collected from the crash site in eastern Ukraine. "The post-mortem started yesterday (Thursday) and it will take time as it has to be done accordingly. We have asked the Dutch experts to expedite the process and we will send in more to help if necessary," he said. Liow also said that there were Malaysian experts collecting data and evidence at the crash site. Meanwhile, the minister urged international bodies to lend support to ensure safe access to the crash site to enable the investigation team to conduct a detailed and thorough investigation. "We don't have full access (to crash site). We are unable to remove the wreckage and there are a lot of restrictions," he said. Flight MH17, a Boeing 777-200 plane, was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was believed to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile on July 17. The Malaysian jetliner with 298 people aboard went down in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. On investigation of the downing of MH17, Liow said it would be conducted in detail and thoroughly while keeping in touch with international investigators. "We will look from all angles including the criminal aspect so that we can get to the bottom of it. We demand justice. We want justice to prevail," he said. -- BERNAMA