By Maarten van Tartwijk
AMSTERDAM--The first pieces of wreckage of Malaysia Airlines
Flight 17 arrived in the Netherlands on Tuesday from Ukraine.
Two convoys of trucks arrived at the Gilze-Rijen military air
base, and another two are scheduled to arrive later in the
week.
The wreckage could provide more clues about the cause of the
crash, and investigators will reconstruct parts of the Boeing Co.
777 jetliner. They have set up a research facility in one of the
air base's hangars.
The Netherlands suffered the highest death toll in the July 17
disaster, and it is leading the international investigation into
the crash and identification of the victims.
Flight 17 was most likely downed by a missile when it was
traveling to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, a catastrophe that killed
all 298 people aboard and rained shards of aircraft and bodies
across a remote conflict zone controlled by pro-Russia rebels.
Ukraine, the U.S. and other Western governments have said the
rebels, who were armed with surface-to-air missiles, are
responsible for the crash. Moscow, however, blames Ukraine.
The recovery of the wreckage had been delayed because of
fighting between Ukrainian government forces and the separatist
fighters. A train carrying the wreckage left the area on Nov. 23
for the government-controlled city of Kharkiv, where it was
transferred to trucks that needed around a week to get to the
Netherlands.
The Dutch Safety Board, the government body in charge of the
crash investigation, in September issued an interim report that
found high-energy objects struck the plane and caused it to break
apart.
The final crash report is expected next summer.
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