An area identified as the place in which the Ukrainian passenger jet crashed after being shot down allegedly by Iran appeared to have been cleaned up only days later, leading many to ask if the rogue nation was engaged in a cover up.
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CBS News senior foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer went to the crash site.
“We've arrived at what the local people say is the crash site,” she said. “There are no guards here, nobody tried to stop us coming in. In fact, there are people all over, some looking for things of value to take away and whatever evidence was here, is just not here anymore."
Gregory Feith, a former NTSB senior air safety investigator, told Inside Edition clearing the wreckage in the manner it appeared to have been done could critically damage efforts to find evidence.
“You scrape this up with a bulldozer you destroy a lot of that evidence and it's just amazing to me that they would allow that to happen,” Feith said.
Video appears to show Iranian missiles hitting the aircraft, which carried 176 people, on Wednesday, but Iran denies having any involvement in the explosion.
“What we can say with certainty, is that no missile hit the plane,” the government said.
As the investigation continues, thousands of people gathered in cities around the world to mourn the loss of those on board and pay respects to their loved ones.
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