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First MH17 bodies arrive

July 23, 2014

Military planes carrying some of the bodies of victims from crashed flight MH17 have arrived in the Netherlands. The bodies were given a high-level official reception before being taken away for identification.

https://p.dw.com/p/1ChIw
Coffins of the victims of Malaysia Airlines MH17 downed over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, are loaded into hearses on the tarmac during a national reception ceremony at Eindhoven airport July 23, 2014. REUTERS/Toussaint Kluiters
Image: Reuters

The first bodies of victims from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 have arrived in the Netherlands, six days after the plane was downed over Ukraine amid a pro-Russia insurgency there.

King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte, along with representatives of the other nations that lost citizens in the crash and some 1,000 relatives of the 298 victims - 193 of whom were Dutch - were at the airport in the southern city of Eindhoven to meet the two military planes.

The wooden coffins were unloaded by uniformed members of the Dutch military. They are to be transported by individual hearses to the city of Hilversum for identification, a process experts say could take some time.

The planes had earlier departed from Kharkiv in Ukraine, where the bodies were loaded following an official ceremony.

Unrecovered bodies?

Experts and world leaders have voiced concern that not all the bodies have been retrieved from the crash site, which is in separatist-held territory in eastern Ukraine. Dutch officials have confirmed receipt of only 200 bodies.

"It's quite possible that many bodies are still out there, in the open in the European summer, subject to interference, and subject to the ravages of heat and animals," said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, whose country lost 28 citizens in the crash.

US officials say they believe the plane was mistakenly shot down by separatists with a surface-to-air missile. They say that it is unclear to what extent Russia - which Ukraine and other countries have accused of supporting the separatists - could be involved.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who claims his country was not involved in any way in the shooting down of the plane, has said he will use his influence on the rebels to provide an unhindered investigation at the crash site. Dutch officials have previously said that separatists had prevented them from having full access to the site, also accusing them of treating bodies and personal possessions with a lack of respect.

British investigators have meanwhile begun work on retrieving information from the flight recorders, which rebels handed over to Malaysian officials only under intense international pressure. They were delivered to Britain on Wednesday for expert analysis.

tj/mkg (APE, AFP)