MH17: UN urged to tighten control at crash site

KUALA LUMPUR: The United Nations (UN) has been urged to tighten control at the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 crash site in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, to ensure that all evidence in the area will not will not be tampered with so that they can be used in court.
Former MAS managing director Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman said if the case were to be brought to the International Court of Justice, tampered evidence could be rejected and hence, affect the trial and conclusion to the tragedy.
"According to the UN law and regulations, apart from participating in the investigation, the UN is also responsible to ensure safety of the area, so that all evidence found at the scene can be accepted valid exhibits in court."
Abdul Aziz, who is also former federal legal advisor, said this to Bernama after appearing as a guest on BernamaTV's Bernama Today programme here this morning.
Besides evidence at the scene, Abdul Aziz, who is also former chairman of the International Council of the Chartered Institute of Transport said, the black boxes were also vital to ascertain the actual cause of the tragedy and who actually shot the plane.
The MAS flight, MH17, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, went down in Donetsk, east Ukraine near the Russian border on July 17.
The Boeing 777-200 jetliner carrying 298 passengers and crew was believed to have been shot down, although no party had claimed responsibility. Besides Malaysians, nationals from the Netherlands, Australia, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand were among the 298 passengers and crew on board.
Investigation on the incident was carried out by an international team of investigators consisting officials from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and the United States' National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz was confident that the captain and the pilot of the ill-fated plane had followed the flight plan approved by the world's aviation security body, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
"Of course they had a flight plan and had taken into account all aspects before taking off, including advice on risky routes as safety is always a priority," he said.
On efforts to restore public confidence in the national carrier, Abdul Aziz, who joined MAS since 1971 and assumed the position of managing director 1988, said MAS should continue operating as usual although badly affected by the MH17 incident.
"We need to restore public confidence that the MAS is an efficient company and will continue to provide the best service to the public, but not by offering refund to passengers due to the MH17 incident," he said in response to MAS decision to refund their passengers who wanted to change or cancel their tickets.
Last Saturday, MAS said it would waive any fees charged to passengers to make changes in their flight itinerary to any MAS destination. – Bernama