Work starts in Ukraine to collect wreckage of MH17

OSCE members watch as recovery workers in rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine load debris from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, in Hrabove, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014, four months after the plane was brought down. Sunday's operation is being carried out under the supervision of Dutch investigators and officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The recovered fragments will be loaded onto trains and ferried to the government-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, and the investigation into the cause of the crash is being conducted there and in the Netherlands. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov) OSCE members watch as recovery workers in rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine load debris from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, in Hrabove, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014, four months after the plane was brought down. Sunday's operation is being carried out under the supervision of Dutch investigators and officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The recovered fragments will be loaded onto trains and ferried to the government-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, and the investigation into the cause of the crash is being conducted there and in the Netherlands. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

By Associated Press November 16, 2014 3 min read

HRABOVE, Ukraine (AP) – Workers in rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine began to collect debris from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on Sunday, four months after the plane was brought down.

The operation is being carried out under the supervision of Dutch investigators and officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The recovered fragments are to be loaded onto trains and taken to the government-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The investigation into the cause of the crash is being conducted there and in the Netherlands.

Alexander Kostrubitsky, the head of the emergency services in the rebel-held areas of Donetsk region, said at the site that gathering debris could take around 10 days. The debris is being sawn into smaller pieces to facilitate its transportation, Kostrubitsky said.

All 298 people aboard the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed when it was shot down July 17 over a rebel-held area. Charred remains of the aircraft are scattered around fields over an area of 8 square miles (20 square kilometers).

The first batch of plane debris was delivered from an area near the village of Hrabove to a lumber warehouse in the town of Torez shortly after lunchtime Sunday. They were due to be put onto cargo trains later in the day.