The first Malaysia Special Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (Smart) has left for Kiev, Ukraine at 8pm today to assist in the investigation of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 tragedy.

The team comprised 24 personnel, experts from the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), and doctors from the Disaster Victim Identification Unit, said Smart operations commander deputy superintendent of police Peter Johnny in a report by The New Straits Times.

The team will be part of the search-and-recovery mission at the crash site in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where MH17 was believed to have been shot down by surface-to-air missiles.

The Smart team is a part of a special investigation team comprising 149 men who left for Kiev tonight on a chartered flight.

Personnel from various other government departments are part of the convoy, including the military, Civil Defence Department, police forensic team, Chemistry Department, National Security Council, and official media.

The team will remain there until the investigation is complete, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim after flagging off the convoy at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

Earlier today, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak vowed that Malaysia would find out precisely what had caused Flight MH17 to crash in Ukraine yesterday.

Flight MH17, carrying 298 passengers and crew bound for Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border last night.