The first 40 bodies of victims from the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 tragedy arrived in Eindhoven military airfield in the Netherlands and were greeted with a full memorial ceremony attended by the families of deceased, state leaders, and senior officials.
Today has been declared a national day of mourning in the Netherlands.
Among those attending the memorial ceremony greeting the deceased were Dutch King WIllem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, and Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, according to a report by The Australian. Flags of all the nations affected by the crash, including Malaysia’s, were flown at half-mast.
The bodies carried out of the C-17 military aircraft were encased in blank caskets without national identification, to illustrate the shared grief of all nations involved. The procession was accompanied by a rendition of “The Last Post”.
The 40 caskets were then transported in individual hearses and were paraded past more than 1000 family members of the deceased, and tens of thousands more members of the public, who came out in force lining the roads and highways in an outpouring of grief and solidarity for the families of those who died in the crash.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is believed to have been shot down over the eastern Ukrainian province of Donetsk on Thursday July 17, while en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The Boeing 777 jetliner was carrying 298 people,193 of whom were Dutch nationals. There were no survivors.
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