Bodies removed from MH17 crash site in Ukraine

FE Team | Published: July 21, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

GRABOVE, July 20 (agencies): Scores of bodies recovered at the crash site of Malaysian plane MH17 in Ukraine have been removed, an AFP reporter on the scene said on Sunday.
Pro-Russian rebels who had been guarding the main impact site also appeared to have left, with about a dozen stretchers, paper masks and plastic gloves abandoned at the scene.
Poles marking locations where bodies had been found in the field had also been removed.
Russian news agency Ria Novosti said a train with five refrigerated carriages carrying the corpses departed Sunday from a station close to the main crash site and was heading for rebel stronghold Donetsk.
Monitors from European security body OSCE inspected the carriages at Torez station, Ria Novosti said, quoting them as saying a total of 198 bodies were on board-presumably recovered from across the vast crash site.
Local emergency crews, also absent from the crash site Sunday, declined to comment when contacted by telephone but said that the separatists would be releasing an official statement later.
Meanwhile: Malaysia Airlines said Sunday it would retire flight code MH17 as a "mark of respect" for the 298 people killed in a jet crash in violence-wracked eastern Ukraine.
The daily Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur service will instead take on the code MH19 from July 25.
"In light of the recent incident, Malaysia Airlines' Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur service, MH17 flight number will be retired out of respect for our crew and passengers," the national flag carrier said in a statement.
"There are no changes to the frequency of our services, and we will continue to operate daily services between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur," the airline added.
"Our thoughts and prayers remains with the families of our colleagues and passengers of MH17."