Salvage of MH17 wreckage underway

Dutch investigators on the ground in eastern Ukraine have officially begun to salvage the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, the Dutch Safety Board announced Sunday. The Boeing 777 crashed near Donetsk in mid July on its way to Kuala Lumpur. Nearly 300 people died on the flight that took off from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

“Recovery operation will take several days depending on the safetyconditions [sic],” the board wrote on Twitter. “Wreckage will be brought to a location near the crashsite [sic], from where it will be transported to Kharkov an [sic] finally the Netherlands.”

The team is recovering pieces of the aircraft after an agreement was reached between the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Ukrainians and pro-Russian separatists in the region, broadcaster RTL reported. Delays in a trilateral agreement covering the MH17 crash site meant Dutch investigators spent last week looking for more human remains instead of focusing on the recovery effort.