ATC tapes still missing

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Start	2014/08/08 00:00:00
End
Description	Malaysia New Strait Times reports the Ukrainian ATC tapes as "still missing"

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Extract from Malaysia New Strait Times article of 8 August 2014:

UKRAINE has denied that its State Security Service (SBU) had seized the air-to-ground transmission tapes between its air traffic controllers and Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on the day the jetliner was shot down. Its ambassador to Malaysia Ihor Humennyi, in an exclusive interview with the New Straits Times, said that reports alleging that the SBU had seized the recordings had not been independently verified or confirmed by Kiev.
“There is no proof or any evidence that the tapes were confiscated by the SBU. I only read this in the newspapers.”
If indeed the SBU had not seized the tapes, then where are the air-to-ground communications tapes between MH17 and the ATC? When asked this, Humennyi said he did not have the answers. Asked if the tapes had been handed over to the investigators, Humennyi said:
" “We don’t have any information that it had not been given to the investigation team or that it was not received by the (team of international) investigators."

Equally puzzling is the international investigation team’s apparent snail’s pace at requesting for the tapes from Ukrainian ATC. Three weeks into the tragedy and the Ukrainians have yet to receive any formal request for the tapes. Yesterday (7 August 2014), when asked, Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said Malaysia would make a formal request for the ATC recordings. However, he did not commit to a definite timeline.