MH 17 plane crash: Sky News reporter apologises for picking up victims' luggage

London, July 22: Sky News reporter on Monday apologised for picking up victims' luggage when he was reporting live at the crash site.

Colin Brazier said that he realised that he had crossed the line and it was his error of judgement.

As per The Guardian report, Colin has mentioned in his apology, "Good journalism takes many things and the empathy I hope they have wrought in me is one of them. But so is understanding the boundaries of decency and taste. And from time to time, we screw up."

"While presenting Sky's lunchtime coverage of the flight MH17 disaster, I stooped down to look at a piece of debris. It was a child's suitcase. I put my hand inside and lifted up a water bottle and a set of keys. As I did so my mental circuit-breaker finally engaged and I apologised instantly on-air for what I was doing", he said.

"I was accused of rummaging through personal belongings, contaminating a crime scene, desecrating a sacred site.
Certainly it was a serious error of judgement. I acknowledged that and so did Sky. My bosses issued an apology by tea-time. They were supportive and keen to stress that they understood the context of the gaffe", he has further mentioned.

"The crash site of flight MH17 is like the set of a horror story. I have covered aviation disaster stories before too. Too late, I realised that I was crossing a line. I thought aloud: "we shouldn't be doing this ... this is a mistake", an instant apology that was only selectively quoted by those determined to see what I did as a powerful example of journalistic vulturism", he added.

[Read Colin Brazier's full text of apology here]

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution calling for an international probe into the downing of a Malaysian passenger plane in Ukraine and demanded that armed groups allow investigators "full and unrestricted" access to the crash site.

Flight MH17, a Boeing 777, was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, when it crashed after being hit by a missile in Ukraine near the Russian border, killing all 298 passengers and crew members on board.

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