Malaysia Airlines victim was wearing oxygen mask

THE HAGUE: One of the people on the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 shot down in Ukraine in July was found wearing an oxygen mask, the Dutch foreign minister and prosecutors said, raising the possibility that some passengers might have known their aircraft was doomed.

“You know that somebody was discovered wearing an oxygen mask and had time to put it on,” Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans told a TV talk show this week.

Dutch prosecutors confirmed yesterday that they were investigating after the oxygen mask was found draped around the person’s neck.

“How and when the mask ended up around the victim's neck is unknown,” the prosecutors emphasised in a letter to victims’ families that was published online.

“The Dutch Forensics Institute examined the mask looking for fingerprints, saliva and DNA, but the probe has not revealed any result.”

None of the other people on board was wearing a mask, the prosecutors said. All 298 on board – 193 of them Dutch – died.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was shot down on July 17 over insurgent-held territory in conflict-racked eastern Ukraine.

The findings of an initial report by a Dutch-led team of investigators appear to back up claims that the aircraft was hit by an anti-aircraft missile.

Kiev and the West have accused Moscow-backed separatists of shooting it down with a surface-to-air BUK missile supplied by Russia. Moscow denies the charge and has pointed a finger at Kiev.

Forensics experts suspended their search for bodies because of clashes between Kiev and the pro-Russian rebels near the crash site north-east of Donetsk, but said they hoped to return once the fighting died down.

Timmermans, the incoming vice-president of the European Commission, said he regretted making the announcement before victims’ families had been informed by prosecutors.

“The last thing I wanted to do was increase their pain.

“I should not have said it,” Timmermans said in a press release after relatives reacted with horror to his comment.

Prosecutors, who sent their letter in reaction to Timmermans’ comment, said “no conclusions can be drawn from the discovery” of the oxygen mask. – Sapa-AFP