No evidence of 'tampering' on MH17 black box data

Dutch investigators said they had downloaded data from the black box of flight MH17 and that it had not been tampered with.

"No evidence or indications of manipulation of the recorder was found," the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) said in a statement.

The recorders, salvaged from the plane wreckage in eastern Ukraine, are being analysed at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch headquarters in Farnborough, southwest of London.

AAIB experts are tasked with extracting information from the cockpit voice recorder, which should give them hours of pilots' conversations, as well as the contents of the flight data recorder.

Pro-Russian rebels controlling the crash site handed the boxes over to Malaysian officials on Tuesday, following an international outcry over the treatment of the wreckage and the bodies of the victims.

Western governments say the evidence points to the Boeing 777 plane having been shot down with a missile by pro-Russian separatists.