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Investigation of the crash site of MH-17 by Dutch and Australian police officers.
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Ministerie van Defensie /
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Monday, 17 November 2014 - 10:27
New video of MH17 crash site surfaces
Four months after the disaster with flight MH17, a video surfaced showing how close the plane came to hitting a nearby village.
The video, obtained by The Associated Press, also suggests that at first residents assumed that the plane was a Ukranian military plane. The video was filmed by a resident of Hrabove. The footage shows residents reacting in alarm as the wreckage of the plane blazes only a couple of meters away from there homes. This is probably the first footage taken after the plane was shot down on July 17th.
In the video residents can be heard asking about the whereabouts of the pilot. At that time several Ukrainian military planes had already been shot down by rebel forces. The pilots and crews of those planes were often taken captive by the rebels. Another exchange can be heard on the video in which one person asks whether more than one plane had crashed, because there is so much debris.
All 298 people on board of flight MH17 were killed when it was shot down over Eastern Ukraine. The cause of the disaster is still unknown. The Netherlands' investigation into the cause of the disaster has determined that the plane crash was most probably not caused by an accident or a bomb on board the plane. The two remaining likely scenarios are that the plane was shot down by an attack from the ground or an attack from the air.
The cause of the disaster has been the subject of several diplomatic disputes. The Ukraine and several Western governments blame Russian-backed separatists for the disaster. Russia denies these accusations, blaming the Ukrainian air force.
On Sunday workers began salvaging the wreckage of the plane in the hopes to use it for a partial reconstruction. During the salvage operation more human remains and personal belongings of the victims were found.