SHOCKING VIDEO SHOWS REBELS LOOTING AUSSIES’ LUGGAGE AFTER SHOOTING DOWN MH17
DISTURBING footage has emerged showing Russian- backed rebels, believing they had shot down a Ukrainian fighter jet, ransacking the luggage of passengers and crew in the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.
A year ago today 298 passengers and crew, including 38 Australian citizens and residents, died when the Kuala Lumpur- bound plane was downed over eastern Ukraine, 40km from Russia’s border.
News Corp has obtained camcorder footage, shot by the rebels themselves. The rebels initially believed they had shot down a Ukrainian air force fighter jet with a ground- to- air missile.
The film records their dismay as, minutes later, they discover the aircraft is a commercial airliner.
News Corp this week handed the footage to a multinational joint investigation team of police from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Ukraine, which is due to report in four months.
An investigation by News Corp can reveal that just after 3pm local time – two hours after civilian air traffic control lost contact with MH17 at 1.20pm – a rebel unit was dispatched from Donetsk to hunt for Ukrainian pilots who had reportedly parachuted from their downed aircraft. An armed unit, guided by a smoke plume from the wreckage, arrived at the site and began the hunt for the pilots.
But to their evident confusion, they found more blazing wreckage and debris than they had expected.
The 17- minutes of footage, which was smuggled out of the rebels’ Donetsk base, shows the faces of the militia, and in the case of one, a Donetsk People’s Republic identity card.
News Corp has had militia conversations translated.
Disturbingly, the footage shows rebels working around the dismem- bered bodies of the passengers and crew to rummage through their belongings to find items of value.
They express shock at finding the backpack of an Australian, before they pore over the person’s belongings. The commander at the site takes a call from headquarters and is told there were two planes.
He then orders all the civilians to be cleared from the area and for all filming to stop, citing his fear that footage could end up on the internet.
He even asks those who were filming as they went through bags to ensure that none of their faces are shown.