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MH17 wreckage - Dutch Safety Board report (Photo: NL Times/Zachary Newmark)
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MH17 wreckage - Dutch Safety Board report (Photo: NL Times/Zachary Newmark)
MH17 radar images anonymously emailed to survivors foundation
The foundation representing the relatives of the victims of flight MH17, Stichting Vliegramp MH17, received three anonymous emails containing stationary radar images of the airline disaster, broadcaster NOS reports.
The origin of the emails is unclear. They contain texts in Russian and Ukrainian. The foundation had experts look at the images and they determined them authentic. The emails will be given to the Public Prosecutor, who will determine whether they can be used in the criminal investigation into the disaster.
On Wednesday the survivors sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Rutte, calling on him to do more to get hold of Russian, Ukrainian and American radar images of the downing of the flight. The relatives believe that Rutte should take the matter United Nations and the International Civil Aviation Organization, whose conventions state that in the event of a plane crash, countries must make radar images available for the investigation.
They find the Ukraine government’s excuse that civilian radar was unavailable that day as being implausible. They also find Russia’s claim that data related to the crash was not stored as “strange,” and unlikely.
The relatives believe that the US is in possession of radar images, based on a 2014 statement by US Secretary of State John Kerry in which he says that they saw the take-off, trajectory and hit. According to NOS, the American images were not made available, because the country does not want to make known how it came into possession of the images.