Malaysia wants access to MH17 crash site

Flight MH17 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile July 17 when flying over eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed.

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein Friday said a team of international investigators should gain immediate access to the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17's crash site in Ukraine.

Hishammuddin said he along with Dutch Defence Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert agreed to the need to resume the search, recovery and investigation operations at the crash site, the Malaysian Star reported.

"We are discussing closely as to the security situation on the ground and the possible timing for the re-deployment of personnel to the crash site," he said.

Hishammuddin, who is in the Netherlands on a working trip to expedite the return of the investigators to the crash site, said both he and Hennis-Plasschaert agreed to continuously update each other on developments so that a joint decision could be made without risking the security and safety of any personnel deployed.

He added that the delegation was also briefed on the operations conducted with regards to MH17 up to this juncture.

"The brief included the process of expatriating the bodies, the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) process which has now entered a more complex phase involving DNA recognition and identification and an analysis of the security situation on the ground," he said.

"The Dutch DVI team is leading the victim identification process and are assisted by DVI teams from other countries including Malaysia and Britain," he added.

Hishammuddin said the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee were also involved as part of the search and recovery operation deployed at the site of the crash last month along with personnel from Malaysia and Australia.

Flight MH17, which left Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile July 17 when flying over eastern Ukraine. All 298 people on board were killed.