An Australian passenger aboard the MH17 Malaysian Airlines plane shot out of the sky above eastern Ukraine in July was found with an oxygen mask around his neck.
The oxygen mask claim was made by Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans in an interview with Dutch late night TV talk program 'Pauw', on Wednesday.
“They did not see the rocket coming, but you know someone was found with an oxygen mask on his mouth?”, Mr Timmermans said on the program, according to the translation provided by news site NLTimes.nl.
"He thus had the time to do that. We cannot rule it out. There is nothing we know now, from which you can draw the conclusion that it could not have happened so.”
These comments were in response to the suggestion Mr Timmermans had misled the United Nations in an emotive speech days after the crash when he evoked the final moments of the passengers aboard the plane, suggesting they would have been aware of their impending deaths.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was shot down on July 17 while flying over insurgent-held territory in eastern Ukraine.
On July 22, Mr Timmermans addressed the UN in New York: "Since Thursday, I've been thinking how horrible must have been the final moments of their lives when they knew the plane was going down.
"Did they lock hands with their loved ones? Did they hold their children to their hearts? Did they look each other in the eyes one final time in a wordless goodbye? We will never know."
Experts investigating the crash had said the passengers would have lost consciousness immediately. There had been no earlier mention of the oxygen mask being found, including in the Dutch Safety Board's preliminary report into the crash, published in September.
In defending his comments to the UN, Mr Timmermans revealed the information on Dutch TV about the oxygen mask previously only made known to the victim's family.
This prompted the Dutch National Public Prosecutor's Office to confirm the oxygen mask was found.
The Prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin says the passenger was not found with the mask on his face, but with its elastic strap was around his neck.
Mr De Bruin told ABC that it is unclear whether this means the person would have been conscious at the time as plane was falling: "We cannot answer this question at this moment because we are still investigating all the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the oxygen mask and also its significance."
The office has also written to the family members of the other passengers who died in the crash saying they are still investigating the detail of the oxygen mask, and that no other victims were wearing an oxygen mask.
Mr Timmermans, who is the new incoming vice-president of the European Commission, later apologised for making the announcement before victims' families had been informed by prosecutors.
"The last thing I wanted to do was increase their pain," he said in a press release.
"I should not have said it."
Meanwhile, the Dutch cabinet said chances of returning to the MH17 crash site were becoming increasingly remote.
"It seems impossible to return to the crash site in the short term given the continuous unstable and unsafe situation," it said in a letter to parliament.
Efforts to retrieve victims' personal belongings and handing them back to relatives also continued, said the letter, signed by the Dutch justice, defence and foreign ministers.
Pages in Russian have been set up on both Facebook and the VKontakte social networking sites urging people to report the discovery of belongings or body parts from the crash, the letter said.
It also called for the crash site to be made secure to help in further identifying the bodies.
"Furthermore, the aim is also to retrieve the wreckage from the area. To do this, access is essential and needed the cooperation from separatists controlling the area."
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