Several M'sian MH17 Crash Probe Team Members Await Bodies At Kharkiv Railway Station

From Mohd Razman Abdullah KHARKIV (Ukraine), July 22 (Bernama) -- Several members of a special Malaysian team of investigators arrived at the Kharkiv railway station here, about 500km from Kiev, to await the retrieved bodies of the people on board a Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight that crashed in Ukraine last Thursday. They comprised 23 personnel from the Special Malaysian Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART), 12 police forensic personnel and a Transport Ministry official. Nine newsmen also accompanied them. They departed Kiev at 10.30 pm Monday (3.30 am Tuesday in Malaysia) and arrived at the so-called rendezvous point at 6 am Tuesday (11 am in Malaysia). The group was despatched to Kharkiv following an announcement by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in Putrajaya Monday night that 282 bodies would be moved by train from Torez to Kharkiv after he had successfully negotiated with Alexander Borodai, who is in command of the region in troubled Ukraine where the crash had taken place. The crash site near Torez is about 300 km from Kharkiv. SMART operations commander for the MH17 mission DSP Peter Johnny told Bernama that the train was scheduled to arrive at 6 am (11 am in Malaysia) but that there had been some delay. "It may take four to five hours to arrive at the station. Maybe at 10 am or 11 am (3 pm or 4 pm in Malaysia)," he said. The MAS flight, MH17, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it went down in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border on Thursday night. The Boeing 777-200 aircraft was carrying 298 people - 283 passengers and 15 crew. It is believed that the plane was shot down but until today no one has claimed responsibility for that. -- BERNAMA