MH17 crash: First coffins flown out of Ukraine, arrive in Netherlands

Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha

The first coffins containing the bodies of victims of MH17 have landed in Eindhoven in the Netherlands after leaving Ukraine on Wednesday, as per Daily Mail report.

According to Reuters, Ukrainian Military spokesperson has said that pro-Russian rebels have shot down two Ukrainian fighter jets in eastern Ukraine.

The rebels in Ukraine`s Donetsk claim having downed a military plane today, reports a Russian website rt.com. However, the claim is unverified yet.

Meanwhile, the black boxes from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 have been taken to Britain where they will be analysed at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Farnborough.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the proposal to move police to the crash site was made by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte "to provide security at the crash scene and surrounding area in order to ensure an independent international investigation into the reasons for the catastrophe," reported the AFP.

A consideration is being made about sending cops to the crash site in Donetsk`s Grabove, said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko after a phone discussion with Netherlands PM Mark Rutte.

There are two planes at the airport to transport first 40 bodies to Hollande. 16 bodies will fly aboard Dutch Hercules jet and other 24 bodies will board Australian jet to leave for Hollande, reported a BBC reporter Kevin Bishop.

The victims` bodies were carried in a refrigerated truck to Kharkiv airport from where it will be flown to Netherlands, tweeted a BBC reporter.

Echoing what Dutch experts said, Australia`s Prime Minister Tony Abbott suggested that it was possible that `many bodies from the MH17 crash are still lying in the open in Ukraine`, reported the AFP.
But Dutch experts now in possession of the corpses said Tuesday they had only counted 200 on the morgue train.

Though rebels had claimed they were sending more than 280 bodies on train to Kharkiv, the Dutch experts say they have counted just 200 bodies.
"We are sure of having 200 bodies and body parts, that is all that I know," said Jan Tuinder, the head of the Dutch delegation told journalists.

Paying tribute to six AIDS campaigners who died aboard the Malaysian jet, ex-US President Bill Clinton said that it doesn`t matter if the downing of MH17 was unintended and that the "world must not weaken its resolve" to take a strong stand.
"It matters not that the murder was meant to be committed against other people," said Clinton addressing the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia.

The Malaysia Airlines Flight 17`s black boxes will be ceded to Britain`s Air Accidents Investigation Branch for forensic analysis, Malaysian minister said.

As MH17 victims` remains wait in Ukraine`s Kharkiv to be flown to Netherlands, an Australian C-17 jet has flown to Ukraine to bring the bodies to Eindhoven, said the Dutch Ambassador to Australia, Annemieke Ruigrok, in a tweet.

In a remarkable change of stance, the US intelligence seemed toning down the rhetoric against Russia when they said that though Moscow was responsible for "creating the conditions" that led to the crash, there was no direct evidence that proved Russia`s direct role in MH17 downing.

The "most plausible explanation" for the downing of MH17 is that the pro-Russian rebels shot it “by mistake, say US intelligence officials. The officials were speaking anonymously at a press briefing on Tuesday.

Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a statement said that Wednesday has been declared as a national day of mourning for the 193 Dutch victims of the flight MH17 crash.

Five days after the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 came down in the fields of Donetsk in Ukraine, a day of national mourning has been declared in the Netherlands, which suffered the most with a majority of the victims being Dutch.

The nation mourns as the first remains are due to be flown to Eindhoven today at 16:00 local time.

The remains, stored in the refrigerated train wagons, left Donetsk for Kharkiv, from where it will fly to Netherlands today.

Four days after the plane was downed, rebels have finally handed over the black boxes to Malaysian experts and allowed the bodies of the victims to be taken to the Netherlands.  The rebels stance changed after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution Monday demanding full access to the crash site and condemning the downing of the plane. The resolution was unanimously approved by the council.  The Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down on Thursday, July 17, killing all 298 people aboard. The passenger jet that was flying 10,000 meters above eastern Ukraine war zone, -was reportedly shot by a surface-to-air Buk missile, that was given to the rebels by Russia, the US has said.