Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was not the first plane to be shot out of Ukraine's skies. The country's civil unrest between pro-Russian and pro-Ukraine forces has caused many more this month alone. The WSJ's Ramy Inocencio reports.
HRABOVE, Ukraine—The prospects of a thorough investigation into the crash of Malaysia Airlines 3786.KU -11.11% Malaysian Airline System Bhd Malaysia RM0.20 -0.03 -11.11% July 18, 2014 4:59 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 471.09M P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap RM3.76 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee Tight-Knit Australian Town Los... 07/19/14 Rebels Confiscate Evidence at ... 07/19/14 Ukraine Official Says Separati... More quote details and news » Flight 17 fell into further doubt Saturday, as the Ukrainian government and rebels threw out barbs over the lack of any progress two days after the disaster.
Ukraine said separatist rebels were confiscating evidence gathered by a limited number of emergency services personnel at the scene, and a rebel leader accused multinational investigators of delaying the probe.
A local resident stands among the wreckage at the site of the crash of a Malaysia Airlines in rebel-held east Ukraine. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
World leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, have called for a transparent, credible investigation into the crash that killed 298 people. But investigations have been hampered by limited access to the site in separatist-held territory amid heavy fighting in other parts of the east.
International observers have described a scene of decomposing body parts and debris with no on-site management.
Ukrainian emergency personnel were allowed onto the site by the armed separatists and found 186 bodies over an area of 25 square kilometers (10 square miles), but had limited access and the rebels were confiscating evidence, a government spokesman said Saturday. (Follow the latest updates on the Malaysia Airlines crash in Ukraine.)

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People search for bodies at the site of the Malaysia Airlines crash near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine. AFP/Getty Images
"There are federal emergency service workers at the scene…. But they have no freedom of movement. They are not allowed to leave the zone [under the control of the separatists]. The terrorists are taking all evidence that they gather," Andriy Lysenko, the spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council said.
He didn't specify whether rebels were taking bodies, aircraft parts or other items.
Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in the battle-torn eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, where the pro-Russia separatists are occupying several towns in a three-month conflict.
U.S. officials say they believe rebels in Ukraine are responsible for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. How did Russian separatists get their hands on such a sophisticated missile system? How did they know how to use it? WSJ's Jason Bellini has The Short Answer.

The U.S. and its allies accused Russian-aided separatists of firing the missile that downed the flight. Ukraine said Saturday that the Ukrainian separatists were in possession of three medium-range missile systems capable of bringing down commercial or military aircraft, but the rebels shipped these missile systems back to Russia hours after the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down.
Russian officials and the separatists accuse Ukraine of shooting at the airliner.
Ukraine is to lead the crash probe under international rules. A multinational team, made up of investigators from the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands, Malaysia and others, was gathering in Kiev and would be based there until the format of the investigation was fully established, a U.K. government spokesman said.
Alexander Borodai, head of the Donetsk People's Republic, told reporters his people are keeping the debris and bodies untouched "so far." But he accused the international experts of dragging their feet and promised to guarantee their security on the territory his forces control.
"There are stray dogs and foxes rambling around and there is also a possibility of shelling from the other side, which all may damage the integrity of the crash site," he said. "We are not in Africa, or the Antarctic. We are in the center of Europe, and I can't understand why they can't drive four hours from Kiev."
"It looks like they want to drag their feet to make the investigation incomplete, impossible. Possibly it is sabotage," he said.
Investigators want to secure critical evidence to determine what happened and ascertain the location of the so-called black boxes that store flight information and voice recordings from the conversation between pilot and co-pilot.
The federal government has no accurate information about the whereabouts of the flight data recorders, Mr. Lysenko said. Mr. Borodai denied earlier reports that the rebels had found them, but said if his people did they would be ready to hand them over to the experts.
A team of international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe tried to secure the crash site on Friday but said they found a chaotic scene. The visit was marked by rebel gunfire in the air, the OSCE said.
"Malaysia is deeply concerned that the crash site hasn't been properly secured," said the country's transport minister Liow Tiong Lai. "The integrity of the site has been compromised, and there are indications that vital evidence hasn't been preserved in place."
The Dutch Safety Board has dispatched a team of three investigators that will assist the Ukrainian probe and work alongside personnel from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch, both of whom have said they would assist the review. The Malaysian investigators in the probe also arrived in Kiev on Saturday, Mr. Liow said.
The Netherlands had by far the largest number of victims, at 192, on the Boeing 777.
Intelligence compiled by Ukrainian spies show that three Buk-M1 systems were shipped out of eastern Ukraine on flatbed trucks in two waves in the early morning of July 18, according to Vitaly Navda, who heads the counterintelligence division of Ukraine's Security Service. A system missing a missile crossed the border in a flatbed truck to Russia at 2 a.m., and two other missile systems with complete set of missiles crossed at 4 a.m., he said.
U.S. officials and other intelligence agencies believe that Flight 17 was shot down by a missile system like the Buk, which was made by the Soviets and still in use by the Russian and Ukrainian militaries.