Investigators to probe MH17 black boxes

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai Wednesday said that crashed Malaysia Airline flight MH17's black boxes would be handed over to the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) for forensic analysis.

"It is normal procedure for black boxes to be sent for analysis to a laboratory authorised by the International Civil Aviation Association," Xinhua quoted Liow as saying.

The decision of handing over the black boxes was made by the international investigation team, led by the Netherlands

Liow said the black boxes would be flown to Farnborough, Britain, accompanied by Malaysian experts and other members of the international investigation team.

Earlier Monday, the rebels including self-proclaimed prime minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Borodai, handed over the flight recorders of the ill-fated jetliner to Malaysian officials at a ceremony in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.

A refrigerated train with the remains of the victims arrived in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, outside rebel territory, Tuesday.

According to officials, the remains will be flown from a coordination centre in Kharkiv to the Netherlands for identification and forensic identification.

The officials said that 282 bodies as well as recovered parts of 16 other bodies were loaded on to the refrigerated train.

Flight MH17, a Boeing 777, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed after being hit by a missile in Ukraine near the Russian border last Thursday, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board. Of the 283 passengers on board, 193 were Dutch.

This is the second major tragedy for Malaysia Airlines this year after flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crew on board went missing while going from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing March 8. The flight remains untraced till date despite intense international search efforts.