Who cares for MH17 eyewitnesses?

November 3, 2014

The Dutch, who are leading the MH17 Joint International team (JIT) think it is increasingly unlikely investigators would be able to reach the Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash zone in Eastern Ukraine.

The announcement comes at a moment the version of a jet fighter downing the airliner for the first time receives serious attention in the West. Countless eyewitness circulating on internet claim at least one military jet flew in the vicinity of MH17 as it disintegrated in the sky on July 17.

Why has JIT wasted almost four month’s?

Why did it not organise the collection of testimonies that can be used in legal proceedings month’s ago? Arguably the crash site itself is unsafe, but was it really impossible to invite locals living near the crash site to come to a safe place and protocol their stories so they can be used in legal proceedings?
Memories fade, will be contaminated with false memories , become more and more unreliable as time passes by. But eyewitness accounts are an integral and important part of any serious air crash investigation. One of very few exemptions prior to MH17 was:

July 17(!) 1996. Flight TWA-800 explodes in the air not far from Long Island, New York, shortly after take off.

Contrary to the MH17-case, many people reported having seen objects most likely to be flares or missiles moving fast towards TWA-800.

A criminal investigation was conducted that lasted four years, but during the National Transport Safety Board meeting in the year 2000 not a single witness was invited to tell his story. Explosion of a fuel tank due to technical error was the final conclusion of the investigation.

Sixteen years after the crash six former investigators sat together with eyewitnesses and two documentary makers and filed for reopening of the investigation, but the NTSB denied the request July 2014. (see also this video from Democracy Now)

Back to MH17

July 17 2014. Flight MH17 is ‘hit by external objects moving with high speed’ and crashes in rebel controlled territory in Eastern Ukraine.

a BBC documentary made a few days after the crash showing witnesses explaining they saw a military plane close to MH17 was deleted after a few hours.

Contrary to the TWA-800 case, not a single person reports having seen anything remotely similar to a missile. Not a single person has mentioned a smoke trail raising up in the sky. Yet, immediately after the tragedy western intelligence services claim the airliner was hit by a Buk-M1 missile fired from rebel territory.
As of today none of the ‘overwhelming evidence’ has been presented in public nor confidentially to the prosecutors of the criminal investigation.

The words of Dutch prime minister Rutte “We will leave no stone unturned” sound more and more grotesque as time keeps ticking.