Recovery of MH17 wreckage to be completed in five days

The recovery of the wreckage Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 will be completed in around five days, the Dutch Safety Board, leading the investigation into the crash in eastern Ukraine, has announced.

The recovery of the wreckage started Sunday and among other things the tail section of the aircraft was recovered Monday. The wreckage will be transported by train to Kharkiv and finally to The Netherlands.

When the conditions allow it and stay similar, the recovery will continue Tuesday and last around five more days, Xinhua cited the safety board as saying Monday.

The board has commissioned the recovery of the wreckage for the investigation into the cause of the crash. This includes a partial reconstruction of the aircraft.

The Boeing 777-200 of the Malaysia Airlines en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed July 17 in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk Region, some 60 km from the Russian border, killing all 298 people on board.

On Sep 9, the safety board issued its first preliminary report, stating the crash had an external cause, probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside. There are no indications that the crash was caused by a technical fault or by actions of the crew.

During the recovery activities Sunday and Monday, new human remains were found as well. These remains will undergo a forensic check in Kharkiv and will be transported for identification to the Netherlands in due course.

According to the last count of the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice a total of 289 victims have been identified yet.