Australian journalist Demjin Doroschenko visits site where Malaysia Airlines MH17 crashed

AN Australian journalist in Ukraine claims passengers’ belongings have been stolen at the site where Malaysia Airlines MH17 came down.

AUSTRALIAN journalist Demjin Doroschenko has described the “smell of death” and evidence of looting at the site with Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 came down.

“It’s like a charnel house,’’ he said.

“There’s bits of bodies and aircraft and children everywhere.

“Last night things were still burning and on fire, it was just terrible.

“Once I knew there were Australians on the plane I went straight there.

“I’ve seen 55 bodies and pieces of aircraft strewn all over the place. The hardest thing is you are walking along and there’s a child’s body just lying there.

“There’s bits of aircraft wings, there’s plane seats with bodies in it.”

Tense situation ... an armed pro-Russian separatist stands on part of the wreckage of MH17. Picture: Maxim Zmeyev

OVERVIEW: Latest developments on MH17 disaster

The 43-year-old, who has been covering Ukraine-Russian tensions for six months, said he had rummaged through some of the passengers belongings, determined to retrieve personal information including their passports and boarding passes for their families.

But he said many of the passengers had items from their luggage stolen and not one wallet found had any money in it.

“I arrived last night when almost no-one else was here so I started looking around the site for Australians,’’ Doroschenko said.

“I got a boarding pass from a woman in Perth and another pass from another Australian guy.

“I’m going to find their families and get their stuff back to them so they can have something that they had when they were on the flight.”

Signs of lives ... belongings of passengers from Malaysia Airlines MH17. Picture: Dominique Faget

Shell-shocked locals say the Boeing 777-200 hit “like an earthquake”, leaving bodies splayed out over a 15-kilometre stretch, along with passports, headphones, travel guides and luggage.

Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft break up before impact.

The cockpit of the ill-fated jet and one of its turbines lay at least a kilometre apart.

The tail is a further 10 kilometres away.

Large pieces of the plane bearing the red, white and blue markings of Malaysia Airlines are clearly visible.

Local Noah Sneider said most villagers are so frightened they’re not going anywhere near the scene.

A woman walks past a body covered with a plastic sheet near the crash site. Picture: Dmitry Lovetsky

“It’s controlled or secured in the sense that there’s two, sort of, nests of rebel fighters at either end of the road, but even they themselves frankly are just in shock, most people here haven’t seen anything like this,” he said.

That’s despite the fact that they’re in the middle of a civil war.

“Those poor people,” said Natalia, 36. “Do you think they understood a thing about this war in Ukraine — even we don’t understand it.”

Rescue workers, policemen and even off-duty coalminers spent the day in to the area adjacent to the site, placing markers near as many bodies as possible.

Originally published as Australian journalist Demjin Doroschenko visits site where Malaysia Airlines MH17 crashed