One of the victims recovered from the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 had an oxygen mask wrapped around his neck, according to a Dutch official, raising questions about whether some passengers were conscious as the doomed airliner fell from the sky.
Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the Dutch National Prosecutor’s Office, informed the relatives of an Australian passenger, whose name has not been released, that he was discovered with an oxygen ask around his neck, according to The Daily Mail . The mask has been tested for fingerprints, saliva, and DNA. Though it did not produce any results, the discovery has raised questions about how long passengers on MH17 remained aware as the Malaysia Airlines flight crashed en route to Kuala Lumpur on July 17th.
Aussie #MH17 passenger ‘had oxygen mask on’ http://t.co/6KiiI0uCXl pic.twitter.com/jQbpVMr8Rf
— SBS News (@SBSNews) October 9, 2014
Meanwhile, Frans Timmermans, Holland’s Foreign Minister, apologized to the families of MH17 victims after he revealed in a live TV interview that one of the passengers had been found with a mask. As The Sydney Morning Herald notes, while the family of the victim in question was made aware of the discovery almost immediately, relatives of other MH17 passengers heard about it for the first time during the interview. The comment resulted in a flood of phone calls from the relatives of MH17 victims. Timmermans said he regretted the comments in a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
“I have an enormous amount of sympathy for the next-of-kin,” he said. “The last thing I want to do is compound their suffering in this way.”
Flight MH17 horror: Passenger found wearing oxygen mask http://t.co/SmV35VoSQU pic.twitter.com/efExwlOK3X
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) October 9, 2014
De Bruin noted that it was unclear where on the Malaysia Airlines aircraft the passenger was sitting. None of the other MH17 victims who were recovered have been found wearing masks, he said.
As The Inquisitr has previously noted, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed on July 17th over Eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border. Last month, Dutch investigators asserted that MH17 was struck by multiple objects from outside the aircraft, which some aviation experts have stated is consistent with a missile strike. According to the head of the criminal investigation into the incident, the most likely scenario currently under consideration is that the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was shot down.
MH17 jet crash victim ‘fell to earth wearing an oxygen mask’ http://t.co/jEEFgVU1Mo pic.twitter.com/CR0nO2Qh72
— The Sun Newsdesk (@SunNewsdesk) October 9, 2014
298 passengers and crew were killed when MH17 was downed in the second high profile accident for Malaysia Airlines this year.
[Image: Reuters via International Business Times ]
