MH17: Investigators in Ukraine unable to reach site of downed plane for third day running

Updated

Australian and Dutch investigators have been unable to get through to the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine for the third day running as fighting continues in the rebel-held region.

Heavy fighting between Ukraine's government forces and Russian-backed separatists continues to surround the crash site of the doomed Malaysian Airlines flight, keeping the convoy of international inspectors, including Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers, at bay.

In a statement, the AFP said the team, based in Donetsk, had "suspended any attempt today to visit the MH17 wreckage while negotiations continue to secure safe access to the site".

"The team decided not to attempt to travel to the site as fighting had intensified in recent days and had led to the mission being aborted on both previous attempts," the statement said.

"The mission will again attempt to enter the crash site when suitable arrangements are in place to provide an appropriately secure area for officers to begin the search for the remains and belongings of victims."

Australia's special envoy in Ukraine, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, says it is not appropriate to send in unarmed Australians while the security situation remains fluid.

"We're going to take a conservative approach - that is the correct approach," he said.

"But as the [Foreign Affairs] Minister said - as soon as the window of opportunity opens, we're going to go in there and do the job very quickly and come out again. Hopefully in a matter of two or three weeks."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has told Fairfax Radio that Australia is determined to repatriate the remains of the victims as soon as possible.

"It didn't work on Sunday, it didn't work yesterday, let's see if it works today. But if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again," Mr Abbott said.

"We will not be readily deterred here."

Mr Abbott says the Dutch and Australian investigators have a "pure, simple and moral mission".

"It's to get in there, to get our people out and bring them home," he said.

Kiev and its Western allies, including Australia, have accused insurgents of shooting down the plane, killing all 298 people on board, including 38 Australian citizens and residents.

Not all the remains of victims in the crash have been accounted for.

In an earlier attempt to reach the crash site the investigators were forced to turn back about 30 kilometres from the objective, with artillery and rocket fire heard nearby.

Yesterday Ukraine said the black boxes recovered from the doomed flight show shrapnel from a rocket explosion caused the passenger jet to crash.

Data from the doomed airliner's black boxes was decrypted in Britain after being handed over to Malaysian officials by the pro-Russian rebels controlling the crash site.

Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said international investigators believed data from the flight recorders show "the reason for the destruction and crash of the plane was massive explosive decompression arising from multiple shrapnel perforations from a rocket explosion".

Surface-to-air missiles such as the Buk system widely believed to have shot the passenger jet down can explode near their targets, blasting a cloud of shrapnel into them.

ABC/AFP

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, disasters-and-accidents, air-and-space, ukraine, asia, australia, russian-federation

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