The cockpit of downed Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 had been sawn in half while lying in a wheat field under the control of Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, according to International monitors who were finally granted access to the full debris field.

They said that large parts of the cockpit were separated from the rest and apparently hauled away, as were huge parts of the fuselage – all key pieces of evidence that could help determine exactly what happened to the ill-fated Boeing 777-200. 

US Intelligence officials reiterated suspicions that MH17 was shot out of the sky by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine “by mistake”.  They said no direct link to Russia has been found, but Moscow “created the conditions” for downing the jetliner by providing the rebels with an old Soviet SA-11 surface-to-air missile system.

And pieces of the airplane aren’t the only thing missing.  The rebels supposedly collected the bodies of the MH17 victims and placed them aboard refrigerated railcars.  But it turns out the cars contain only about 200 human remains.  297 people including 28 Australians were on the plane when it went down.

“We will not leave until (all) remains have left this country so we will have to go on and bargain again with the people over there,” said Dutch Forensics expert Jan Tuindersaid, promising another search of the crash site.

Meanwhile, Interpol said that of the bodies recovered so far, international experts in Kharkiv would carry out preliminary examinations on the bodies aboard the train before they are transported to the Netherlands.