The body of a victim recovered from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 had an oxygen mask on, leading investigators to question whether passengers on board knew what was happening when the plane plunged from the sky over Ukraine.
The oxygen mask was around the man’s neck, Dutch prosecutors told The Associated Press, and no other passengers were found wearing the masks. The crash victim was an Australian passenger.
Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the Dutch National Prosecutor's Office, told the AP the mask was checked "for fingerprints, saliva, and DNA and that did not produce any results. So it is not known how or when that mask got around the neck of the victim."
Almost 300 passengers and crew aboard MH17 were killed in July when investigators said the flight was probably hit by “high-energy objects from outside the aircraft," which some believe were missiles.
Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said in a television interview that everyone may not have died immediately.
In a government statement released after that, Timmermans said that he was aware of how upsetting that remark may have been for family members.
“The last thing I want is to add to their suffering in any way," he said, according to the BBC. "I shouldn't have said it."
Several experts believed the plane would have fallen apart quickly, and passengers would probably have been unaware of what was happening.
Victims’ families were upset they didn’t hear about the oxygen mask before Timmermans did the interview, BBC said.
The fate of the flight has been difficult to determine because investigators weren’t able to go into the area right after it happened.
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