Boeing absent from crash scene

[TOULOUSE] As the manufacturer of the Malaysian Airlines 777 jet that crashed in eastern Ukraine last Thursday, Boeing Co would typically be among the first parties to send in specialists to help figure out what happened.

This time, at least for now, they're staying home.

"As at this morning, no one from Boeing has gone, or has been requested," Charlie Miller, a spokesman for the Chicago-based company, said on Sunday.

The downing of Malaysian Flight 17 by a missile in territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists fighting Ukraine's government throws out the rules for conducting crash investigations.

In normal aviation accidents, representatives of airlines, manufacturers and government agencies quickly assemble a team of specialists to secure the crash scene, study the wreckage, and retrieve and analyse the flight recorders. While dealing with armed rebels and loot…