New video footage has emerged which reportedly shows Ukrainian separatists walking around the wreckage of the plane shortly after the crash of Malaysian Airways flight MH17 a year ago today.

The disaster killed 298 people, most of whom were Dutch people going on holiday.

The 17 minute video is in the hands of News Corp Australia and, the website says, ‘was smuggled out from the rebels’ own Donetsk base.

The video, which shows the rebels were expecting to find a Ukrainian airforce fighter jet not a passenger plane, has been handed over to crash investigators, News Corp says.

In the footage, rebels are seen wandering around the smouldering wreckage, picking through belongings and talking on mobile phones.

‘News Corp can reveal a unit from Donetsk was dispatched shortly after 3pm local time, two hours after contact by civilian air traffic control was lost at 1.20pm, to hunt for Ukrainian pilots who reportedly parachuted from their aircraft after it was shot down,’ the website states.

The rebels also talk about locals seeing a pilot ‘crawling’ from the scene after parachuting to safety.

Questions

However, Nos correspondent David Jan Godfroid says there are questions about the video’s authenticity.

For example, the commander is heard to say that Ukraine brought down the passenger plane so the separatists could be blamed. ‘They would be very unlikely to think this so soon after the crash,’ Godfroid says. ‘And there are other things which make me doubt its authenticity.’

For example, no wreckage from a Sukhoi has been found and no pilot came to the ground, Nos reports.

Watch a short summary of the footage