MH17 crash victims: First bodies flown to Netherlands from Ukraine
The Netherlands is holding a national day of mourning for victims
Heather Saul
Heather Saul is an online news reporter for www.independent.co.uk
Wednesday 23 July 2014
The first 50 bodies recovered from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine are being flown into the Netherlands today to begin the process of identification.
Wooden coffins were loaded onto a military aircraft in a ceremony at Kharkiv Airport. The bodies are being transported to Eindhoven Airport where they will be met by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, the Prime Minister Mark Rutte and relatives at 4pm local time.
The Netherlands government said a minute's silence will be held before a motorcade takes them from Eindhoven Airport to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks to be identified.
An unconfirmed number of bodies were released by the rebels yesterday and taken to the government-controlled city of Kharkiv in a refrigerated train carriage.
Video: The aftermath of MH17 crash
Meanwhile, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) confirmed the black boxes from the downed flight have been delivered to their headquarters at Farnborough in Hampshire.
The AAIB has been tasked with retrieving crucial data from the flight recorders for "international analysis" to determine the circumstances surrounding the plane crash.
A department spokesman said it would take 24 hours to download the data from each black box, but did not know whether the data from each could be downloaded simultaneously.
Earlier, thousands of social media users replaced their profile pictures for black squares to pay tribute to the victims of MH17.
The avatar blackout and hashtag #bringthemhome has been led by users in the Netherlands, where a day of mourning will be held today for the 298 passengers killed when the Boeing 777-200 was apparently shot down by a rocket. Some 193 of the victims were Dutch and 10 were British.
The trend began as a call for all of the bodies of victims to be repatriated as soon as possible and the hashtag has also been used by people in Australia, Britain and the US.
I won't show my pretty face until all victims #MH17 have been secured from that doomed spot #blackava #bringthemhome
; Yvonne Gerrits (@Callmevonne) July 23, 2014
#bringthemhome . The victims of #MH17 belong with their loved ones. Put your avatar on black, to help make a statement. RT
; Messi Borst (@MessiBorst) July 21, 2014
Some in the Netherlands changed their AVI's to black until the #MH17 victims are home I've decided to do the same in support #bringthemhome
; Mitch (@M_1tch) July 21, 2014
Have changed my profile picture black in memory of all the innocent people who tragically lost their lives in this atrocity #bringthemhome
; sarah (@sarahm68) July 23, 2014
Mr Rutte has warned identifying the bodies could take “weeks, or even months”. The Dutch are leading the investigation into what happened to the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur flight, at the request of the Ukrainian government.
A British team of police officers, led by the Metropolitan Police, will assist with victim identification in the Netherlands.
READ MORE: What are the 'black boxes' and what could they reveal?
PRO-RUSSIAN REBEL ‘ADMITS TO SHOOTING DOWN PLANE’
US CLAIMS RUSSIA 'CREATED CONDITIONS' for DOWNING OF MH17
AIDS CONFERENCE DELEGATES VOW TO HONOUR MH17 VICTIMS
Prime Minister David Cameron announced Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) is to retrieve data from the black boxes for "international analysis" after a request from the Dutch government.
On Tuesday, senior US intelligence officials claimed Russia was responsible for "creating the conditions" that led to the shooting down of MH17, but they offered no evidence of direct Russian government involvement.
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