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After several days of confusion during which no authority appeared to be in charge of the wreckage, Ukrainian rebels have agreed to deliver the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 to the government of Malaysia, officials said on Monday. “Independent international investigators will be guaranteed safe access to the crash site to begin a full investigation of the incident,” said Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. The human remains that have been recovered will be delivered to forensic investigators in the Netherlands and later flown back to Malaysia. Meanwhile, some analysts say the airline may not be able to survive the unprecedented loss of two aircraft in less than five months.
The airline, which is publicly traded, may decide to go private or may file for bankruptcy, according to a recent analysis in Bloomberg News. The airline had been ready to order about 100 jets from Airbus and Boeing before MH370 went missing, according to Bloomberg. Those plans are now under review. Also on Monday, the Air Line Pilots Association International said the crash investigation should be turned over to the International Civil Aviation Organization. “ICAO representatives in the field should be given full access to all recorded information from the aircraft, including flight data recorders, maintenance recorders, and other recorded data from aircraft systems,” said ALPA’s statement. ICAO said last week it would send a team to assist the Government of Ukraine with the accident investigation. The 777 crashed after apparently being hit by a missile launched from the ground on Thursday; all 298 people on board were killed. In March, MH370 disappeared somewhere above the South Pacific Ocean, with 241 on board. The search for wreckage is ongoing.
