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A SMALL GROUP of Dutch and Australian investigators are at the unsecured site where Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 went down today.
The group took notes and photos as their governments prepared police detachments they hope can help protect the crash area and bring the last of the victims home.
The Dutch government said 40 unarmed military police were leaving the Netherlands late today for eastern Ukraine to help investigators, while Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said his government is close to a deal to send police. Australia has 90 federal police officers standing by in Europe.
MH17
The Boeing 777 went down July 17 as it headed to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, killing all 298 people on board. US and Ukrainian officials say it was shot down, likely by mistake, by a missile fired from rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists are fighting Ukrainian government forces.
Of the dead, 194 were Dutch citizens and 37 were Australian citizens or residents. Both countries’ governments have expressed a determination to see the dead brought home and the accident investigated.
Security concerns and rebel interference have delayed recovery of the bodies and limited investigators’ access to the site, more than a week after the crash.
Remains
“This will be a police-led humanitarian mission,” Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in Kharkiv, where more remains were placed on flights to the Netherlands today for identification and investigation.
“And there will be body identification experts, forensic experts. And of course we will ensure that they are safe, that they will have protection.”
Bishop spoke to the crews of the two airplanes, an Australian C-17 and a Dutch C-130, which flew another 74 coffins from Kharkiv in government-controlled eastern Ukraine to Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
On arrival, the coffins were carried from the planes to a fleet of waiting hearses that took them to the central city of Hilversum, where an international team of forensic experts is working to identify the remains.
No plan for a large-scale deployment of experts and security personnel had yet been announced today and the site remained largely unsecured.
Four Australian and three Dutch investigators walked among the widely-scattered plane parts past two grazing cows near the village of Hrabove on a warm summer day. The investigators were accompanied by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The Dutch Safety Board leading the international investigation said it expects to publish “initial factual findings” as early as the end of next week, and that these will likely provide a picture of how the investigation will proceed.
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The Celtic Tiger never existed. It was all smoke and mirrors. All the wealth was based on credit.
And good riddance, may we never see a’boom’ based on credit again.
We will soon rise from the ashes and welcome the Celtic Phoenix!!!!
The Celtic Tiger is extinct.
He was killed,Eaten and his coat sold to feed a poor family in the mid west in early Spring 2009…
The Celtic Tiger?
The Celtic Ponzi Scheme Creature more like.
A very special Ponzi Scheme where the heinous culprits/villians get rewards, protection and media immunity as their victims are screwed to death.
Exactly. I said the same thing to my Business Studies teacher and to my ‘European Studies’ teacher in transition year. They looked at me like I had just told them I had broke into their houses and pissed on their kids.
True story.
From the celtic tiger to the celtic thieves led by edna and co.
That is the most embarassing phrase in the irish lexicon, and of course there will be some rubbish about a Phoenix or a Celtic tiger revival in the near future. Anything to make us feel good about ourselves
It’s was the best thing that ever happened to this country 50 years of progress in 10 to spite all it’s faults roll on the Celtic phoenix coming quicker than ye think
And now it’s in its way back and everyone is getting greedy again…. House prices rents and costs in general have increased. …. what have we learned ???????, nothing it seems !!
Don’t worry, she will be back. Circa 2018
I have a bridge I want to sell you in New York.
He only resigned now, wow?
We now have the “Austerity Tiger” tearing the lives of Irish Families apart!
Our elected politicians destroyed Ireland and its people.
Each man women and child has a debt of €100,000 each due to a Government decree whereby ” unsecured Bondholders” mainly German Banks lent money to Irish Banks for commercial gain.
Merkel forced Fianna Fáil to transfer the unsecured Bondholders to the Irish a Taxpayers . We therefore repaid German Banks in full!
Germany makes a surplus of €41billion PA from the rest of Europe while the rest of Europe has an annual deficit of €37 Billion!
Germany now owns Ireland and Irish Citizens are suffering from austerity even poverty!
The Government should have left the Euro and devalued hence boosting exports and creating many new jobs!
Soon we will rise from the ashes and welcome the Celtic Phoenix!!!
Today FM will buy it, sack everybody and rebrand it CTFM.
Today it is the Celtic Crater.
Boring
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