Members of a joint team investigating the crash of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger aircraft in Donetsk region have agreed to extend the investigation for another nine months, reads a report posted on the website of Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan on Thursday, Nov. 13.
“While member countries have agreed to extend the JIT [joint investigation team] to August 2015, I emphasized that Australia was determined to work for as long as is required to bring those responsible to justice,” Keenan said.
The team comprises the Netherlands, Ukraine, Australia and Belgium, as well as other international partners including Malaysia. The Australian Federal Police has approximately 35 personnel working in Ukraine and The Hague as part of the investigation through the JIT.
“Australia is committed to returning to the crash site. However, the security situation near the crash site remains unstable,” reads the statement.
As reported, Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777 (flight MH17) crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17 while flying from Amsterdam (the Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). All 298 people on board were killed. They included 196 Dutch nationals, 44 Malaysians, including the 15 crew members, and 27 Australians, as well as citizens of Indonesia, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand.
The Dutch Safety Board published a preliminary report on an investigation into the MH17 crash on Sept. 9, which says that the plane did not have technical faults and its in-flight disintegration was caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated it from the outside.
Nine victims of the crash remained unidentified as of Nov. 8.
On Nov. 12, the international mission that collects evidence on the plane crash site in eastern Ukraine came across more human remains. The remains are due to be taken to Kharkiv for initial forensic tests on Thursday, Nov. 13, and will then be sent on to the Netherlands.
