THE HAGUE, May 2 — A flight carrying the last remains of Dutch victims killed in last year’s MH17 plane crash in rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine arrived in the Netherlands today.
The Dutch air force C-130 plane landed shortly before 4.00 pm (1400 GMT) at the Eindhoven air force base carrying seven coffins, live video on Dutch news website nu.nl showed.
All 298 passengers and crew on board the Malaysia Airlines jetliner—the majority of them Dutch—died when the plane was shot down on July 17 last year.
The Dutch government last week said Dutch and international experts had finally finished recovering body parts and wreckage from the crash site.
Today, 327 relatives of the victims and Dutch government officials looked on as the coffins were slowly carried from the plane, while a lone trumpeter played the Last Post.
The remains will taken to a forensic laboratory in Hilversum east of Amsterdam for identification.
To date, all but two of the 298 victims have been identified.
The Boeing 777 was on a routine flight between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down. Kiev and the West claim that the plane was shot down by pro-Russian separatists using a BUK surface-to-air missile supplied by Moscow. Russia has denied the charges, pointing the finger instead at Kiev.
The Netherlands has been tasked with leading the investigation into the cause of the accident and identifying the victims. — AFP
