KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is worried the black box recording devices of MH17 will be tampered with to protect those who shot down the plane, as a UN agency said Ukraine will be officially in charge of investigations into the crash.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak said after meeting relatives of victims that the black boxes are owned by Malaysia.
''Those who have no rights whatsoever cannot claim or take control of the black box,'' he said.
Aviation experts say the boxes, which contain cockpit and data recordings, would establish where the surface-to-air missile that brought the Boeing 777 down was fired from.
Malaysia's Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai said his country does not know whether the devices have been recovered from the crash site in eastern Ukraine.
Within hours of the crash there were unconfirmed reports the black boxes had been sent to Moscow.
Australian aviation expert Desmond Ross said it is crucial the black boxes be kept safe and taken to an independent authorised laboratory.
''That will tell us almost everything,'' Captain Ross said.
''I am concerned that if, as is being reported, the Russians have them, they may be altered or that some data will mysteriously disappear,'' he said.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation, the Montreal-based UN agency regulating aviation, said under international conventions Ukraine will be officially in charge of the investigation because the plane crashed there.
But the ICAO said in a statement that other countries will also be to participate or appoint experts to the investigation, which will presumably include Malaysia and other countries whose citizens were killed, including Australia.
Fairfax Media
Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak said after meeting relatives of victims that the black boxes are owned by Malaysia.
''Those who have no rights whatsoever cannot claim or take control of the black box,'' he said.
Aviation experts say the boxes, which contain cockpit and data recordings, would establish where the surface-to-air missile that brought the Boeing 777 down was fired from.
Malaysia's Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai said his country does not know whether the devices have been recovered from the crash site in eastern Ukraine.
Within hours of the crash there were unconfirmed reports the black boxes had been sent to Moscow.
Australian aviation expert Desmond Ross said it is crucial the black boxes be kept safe and taken to an independent authorised laboratory.
''That will tell us almost everything,'' Captain Ross said.
''I am concerned that if, as is being reported, the Russians have them, they may be altered or that some data will mysteriously disappear,'' he said.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation, the Montreal-based UN agency regulating aviation, said under international conventions Ukraine will be officially in charge of the investigation because the plane crashed there.
But the ICAO said in a statement that other countries will also be to participate or appoint experts to the investigation, which will presumably include Malaysia and other countries whose citizens were killed, including Australia.
Fairfax Media
The FDR and CVR (Flight Data and Cockpit Voice Recorder) cannot tell where a missile was launched from but they can show where and at what time exactly it hit the airplane, if that's what happened.
Knowing the range of the missile this will then give an area of possible launch sites but commercial aircraft have no missile detection systems.
TCAS data (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) is of no help either because it relies on Transponder signals which missiles obviously do not have.
Yes, the recorders will tell us a lot but to imply they will reveal the exact location the missile was launched from is misleading.
Furthermore trying to alter their stored data will leave a trail of evidence which WILL be detected so if someone wishes to suppress something stored in them without being caught doing so, they cannot hand them over to the independent investigators.
I expect them to either appear untouched or never be handed over at all with claims they could never be recovered.
Looking at the pictures of the crash site and it's large area (15km radius)it's obvious the airplane broke up mid air. This would increase the chances of the recorders making it to the ground intact (lower force of impact and no all encompassing fire).
It's also reported that the ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) signal was picked up, further suggesting several crucial emergency equipment maintained their functionality throughout the crash.
Russia's Foreign ministry has pledged they will not tamper with the recorders but will hand them over to ICAO. Considering the denials by the rebels that the recorders have been found this is a somewhat conflicting statement.
Posted by ThaiMike on July 20, 2014 09:34