The lawyer who helped negotiate $2.7 billion from the Libyan government to compensate families of victims of the Lockerbie air disaster two decades ago says the Malaysian government and its agencies should be kept out of the investigation because of an insurmountable conflict of interest.

The Malaysian government owns more than half the shares in Malaysia Airlines, whose flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine on July 17 by a surface to air missile.

Jerry Skinner, a US aviation lawyer who works as a co-associate with Australian firm LHD Lawyers, said potential plaintiffs in the case would almost certainly consider Malaysia Airlines as culpable because "the airline chose to fly an area that was a known war zone where sophisticated weapons were being used".

He said allowing the Malaysians to be involved in the investigation had the potential to contaminate the investigation, because the airline's decision and possibly those of any air safety authorities to fly over the war zone, would be central to future compensation cases.

"This could be seen as an intentional effort to confuse the investigation and the Malaysians should be excluded from it," he said.