The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said its monitors, accompanied by Dutch and Australian experts, reached the crash site of a Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, two weeks after the plane came down, according to The Associated Press.
As fighting continued nearby, an international team of investigators finally reached the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 wreckage site on Thursday and got their first look at a scene experts fear has been badly compromised in the two weeks since the plane was blown out of the sky, the AP reported.
Investigators, two each from the Netherlands and Australia, made an initial survey of the area shortly after lunchtime, fighting raged between government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels, and mortar shells rained down on fields in a nearby village, according to the AP
"Today was more about an assessment of the site than it was of a search," said Australian Federal Police commander Brian McDonald, the AP reported. Up to 80 bodies are still at the site.
Fighting between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces in the wider area has frustrated international experts' efforts to get to the site to recover remains of the victims and investigate the crash, the AP reported. Kiev and the rebels accuse one another over the downing of the plane, which killed all 298 on board.
"OSCE... monitors reach MH17 crash site for first time in almost week, accompanied by four Dutch, Australian experts. Used new route to access," the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said on Twitter, according to the AP.
"Today was more about an assessment of the site than it was of a search," said Australian Federal Police commander Brian McDonald, the AP reported.
Up to 80 bodies are still at the site, said Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. from Ukraine.
The small team would make initial checks of the area, a statement from the Dutch mission said, the AP reported.
"They will now only do initial reconnaissance, so that they can start searching as soon as possible during a later visit," it said, according to the AP.
Most of the international experts remained in the nearby provincial capital of Donetsk, now the main rebel stronghold in the east, the AP reported.
