Debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 lay splayed for miles across silent rural fields in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. Two days after the jet crashed, some bodies remained strapped in seat belts -- wearing inflight headphones.
Conspicuously missing at
the crash site near Torez were international forensic workers needed to
secure and sort the wreckage, and a recovery crew to identify and remove
with dignity the bodies of the 298 people who were on board MH17.
A few things have been
moved. Luggage was stacked in piles; mementos, children's toys were
handled. Most everything is unguarded, there for the curious -- or for
the taking.
But the debris field
hasn't changed much overall since it slammed into place from about
30,000 feet in the air. Not like it would change, if investigators had a
chance to cordon it off and catalog it.
A round piece of wreckage
the size of a small garage -- part of the cabin perhaps -- stood tilted
over personal effects of people heading for vacation. Fields were
bestrewn with novels, beach sandals, guide books and colorful carry-on
bags.
And all around them were the bodies of their owners, some dressed in shorts and other vacation wear.
With leaders around the
world calling for a swift, thorough and professional investigation, in
eastern Ukraine, a small group of local government workers camping near
the wreckage emerge from their tents in the mornings.
They split up the crash
site territory in an orderly manner to look for bodies, said journalist
Noah Sneider, who visited the site. The emergency workers mark spots
where they find human remains with stakes and tie white rags around
them.
There are so many of
them. Bodies lie by the roadside, some in fields, some intertwined with
parts of the aircraft. And they are spread out so far.
"Half of them are so mangled, you couldn't identify them," Sneider said.
-CNN
0 Comment:
Post a Comment