Rescue workers recover second MH17 black box
Rescue workers have recovered the second flight recorder from the Malaysia Airlines MH17 jetliner which was shot down yesterday night while flying over Ukraine, Reuters said.
Pro-Russian separatists in the region said yesterday they had found one of the "black box" recorders when the Malaysian airliner came down, killing all 298 people on board.
Ukraine accused pro-Moscow militants, aided by Russian military intelligence officers, of firing a long-range, Soviet-era SA-11 ground-to-air missile.
Leaders of the rebel Donetsk People's Republic denied any involvement and said a Ukrainian air force jet had brought down the intercontinental flight.
Meanwhile, world leaders demanded an international investigation into the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner.
One US official said Washington strongly suspected the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 was downed by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile fired by Ukrainian separatists backed by Moscow.
The crash yesterday left wreckage and bodies scattered across miles of rebel-held territory.
The scale of the disaster could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds since protests toppled the Moscow-backed president in Kiev in February and Russia annexed the Crimea a month later.
The United States called for an immediate ceasefire to allow easy access to the crash site, while pro-Russian separatists told the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a security and rights body, they would ensure safe access for international experts visiting the scene. – Reuters, July 18, 2014.
