Kharkiv- The international recovery mission hopes to return to the scene of the MH17 crash in Donetsk region as soon as possible, its head Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg has said.
At a Saturday briefing on Aug. 9 in Kharkiv he voiced hope that the security
situation would stabilize in the near future and the team would be able
to fully inspect the scene of the catastrophe and complete its mission.
He also expressed hope that the international mission, Ukrainian
specialists and everyone involved in the process would be able to return
as soon as possible.
He said that a small group of 12-14 experts with the necessary
equipment would stay in Kharkiv. Local residents will be able to return
the remains of the crash victims or their personal belongings to it.
Aalbersberg thanked local residents, specialists from the State
Service for Emergency Situations and volunteers for helping with the
search.
He said they learned that over 800 volunteers had conducted intensive
search efforts in the first few days after the crash when most of the
bodies of the victims were found. All of them were returned to the
Netherlands, he said. The fact that the international team found only a
small number of remains in the past few days only proves the fact that
the work done immediately after the crash was greater than it had been
thought before, he said.
