Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Black Boxes, Bodies Released, Monitors Say Wreckage ‘Significantly Altered’

Pro-Russian separatists released the black boxes and victims’ bodies from the Malaysia Airlines plane that crashed in Ukraine last week as international investigators poured over the crash site in rural farmland. The remains of the victims were loaded on refrigerated train cars and shipped to Kharkiv, a city in the eastern part of the country still under government control.

International monitors told ABC News that wreckage from the downed plane appears to be “significantly altered” and major pieces of the front of the plane appear to have been cut away. Investigators earlier observed someone using power tools to cut into the wreckage.

The news comes as the bodies from Flight 17 are on their way back to the Netherlands after delays and haphazard treatment of the remains led to pressure on European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, reports the Seattle Times.

Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 crashed on July 17 in farmland occupied by pro-Russian separatists on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The West has accused the separatists of shooting the plane down, but Russia suggested in recent media sessions that Ukraine may be to blame instead.

The crash site is still unsecured five days after the disaster, another source of frustration for officials around the world who are trying to establish the facts of the case. The departure of the bodies from the crash site is one step forward, but officials say there is still a long way to go.

The train carrying the bodies departed Torez and arrived in a station in Kharkiv after 17 hours. The train gave a low-pitched blast from its horn as the cars slowly rolled through the tracks onto the grounds of a factory where the remains will be received. Government spokesman Oleksander Kharchenko told reporters that Ukraine “will do our best” to send the bodies to the Netherlands on Tuesday.

Of the 298 people who perished aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, 193 were Dutch citizens.

Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, reported that the altering of the wreckage was “very invasive.” Rebels countered that they had to move and alter big pieces of the Malaysia Airlines plane to get at bodies and body parts.

The black boxes from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were handed over to Malaysian officials on Monday and could aid in the investigation to discover what happened to the Boeing 777. As the investigation continues, European Union foreign ministers in Brussels discussed whether to impose more sanctions in response to the disaster.

A few rebel fighters were spotted at the crash site near Hrabove, accompanying observers from the OSCE. The farmland where the wreckage is scattered is otherwise unguarded. Tape surrounding the fields was torn away. The smell of decay and flies at the scene suggested the presence of remains under the plane’s wreckage and observers explained Monday that not all bodies had been recovered.

As investigators continue to comb through the crash site for Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution demanding justice for the victims and that those responsible “be held to account.”

[Image by Aero Icarus]