MH17: Sky News apologises after presenter rummaged through luggage of Malaysia Airlines flight

Updated

British broadcaster Sky News has apologised after one of its presenters searched through luggage at the crash site of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 live on air.

The presenter was reporting from the eastern Ukraine crash site of the MH17, which was shot down over rebel-held territory on Thursday, killing all 298 people on board, including 37 Australian citizens and residents.

In a news broadcast on Sunday, presenter Colin Brazier was shown rooting through personal belongings in an opened suitcase at the site, picking up a set of keys before saying, "we shouldn't really be doing this".

The footage sparked outrage on social media, including calls for Mr Brazier to be sacked.

BBC presenter Jacqui Oatley tweeted that she was "astonished," while Joe Watson, a professor of Mass Media at Baker University described it as a "horrible moment for journalism".

Phil Williams at the crash site



"All around here, there are bits and pieces [of debris] and it goes like this, not for a few hundred metres, but for kilometres," said ABC correspondent Phil Williams, who is at the scene of the crash.



"We saw some pieces driving in here about 12 kilometres from this site, so it will be an extraordinarily difficult task to get everything together.



"And is this a proper crime scene? Is this being treated as a proper investigation? Certainly not. We saw some people being brought in today, coalminers, we're told, and sent out to comb through these fields.



"They've cordoned off some of the areas a little more effectively and recovered some of more of the body parts in some of the more difficult areas, but in terms of an international operation here, it's wholly inadequate.



"It really does look, I'm afraid to say, as though there has been some sort of looting here because virtually every bag we've seen has been opened.



"It looks like it's been rummaged through, and if that's true that's a very distressing element to this whole disaster."



Read more here. "All around here, there are bits and pieces [of debris] and it goes like this, not for a few hundred metres, but for kilometres," said ABC correspondent Phil Williams, who is at the scene of the crash."We saw some pieces driving in here about 12 kilometres from this site, so it will be an extraordinarily difficult task to get everything together."And is this a proper crime scene? Is this being treated as a proper investigation? Certainly not. We saw some people being brought in today, coalminers, we're told, and sent out to comb through these fields."They've cordoned off some of the areas a little more effectively and recovered some of more of the body parts in some of the more difficult areas, but in terms of an international operation here, it's wholly inadequate."It really does look, I'm afraid to say, as though there has been some sort of looting here because virtually every bag we've seen has been opened."It looks like it's been rummaged through, and if that's true that's a very distressing element to this whole disaster."

A Sky News spokesperson has since issued an apology.

"Today whilst presenting from the site of the MH17 air crash Colin Brazier reflected on the human tragedy of the event and showed audiences the content of one of the victims' bags," the spokesperson said.

"Colin immediately recognised that this was inappropriate and said so on air. Both Colin and Sky News apologise profusely for any offence caused."

The incident came as Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop called for respect for the bodies of the 298 who perished in the disaster, amid reports the crash site was being trampled and interfered with while investigators' access to the site was restricted by conflict.

"It is an utter outrage that that site has been contaminated and that evidence has been removed," she said.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described the site as "chaotic", expressing concern about how the management of the crash site may impact the integrity of investigations into the cause of the crash.

"The last footage that I've seen, which I presume is the most up-to-date footage that's available, the site is being treated more like a garden clean-up than a forensic investigation and this is completely unacceptable," he said.

Journalist David Ferris has described "hellish scenes" at the MH17 crash site after visiting on Saturday morning (local time).

"It's still very grim ... [There are] a lot of personal effects scattered about," he said.

"There is a large area of charred aeroplane parts and charred earth ... [and] another area, which is a hellish scene – just body parts and mangled corpses and cadavers twisted in unnatural ways."

AFP/ABC

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, air-and-space, accidents, disasters-and-accidents, world-politics, government-and-politics, ukraine, russian-federation, australia, united-kingdom

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