State of affairs flight MH17 disaster

On Wednesday 15 October 2014 the standing committee on Foreign Affairs, the standing committee on Security and Justice and the standing committee on Defence had a debate with Mr Frans Timmermans, minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Ivo Opstelten, minister of Security and Justice, and Ms Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, minister of Defence, about the aftermath of the flight MH17 disaster in Ukraine. The crash killed 298 people, 196 of whom were Dutch nationals.

An investigation should reveal who was responsible for the crash

The Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office has been charged with the criminal investigation into the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH 17 on Thursday 17 July 2014. The results of this investigation must bring to light who was responsible for the plane crash in Ukraine. On 9 September 2014 the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) published a preliminary report, stating that the Boeing 777-200 had broken up, on its flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, very likely because it had been penetrated by a large number of high-energy objects. The OVV did not find indications of technical or operational issues with the aircraft or crew. The OVV aims at producing its final investigation report on the circumstances of the disaster within one year after the crash.

Disaster area

On Monday 13 October 2014 a Ukrainian disaster response team, together with four Dutch investigators, managed to recover several personal belongings of victims in the flight MH17 disaster area. Shortly after the crash in July it had been very difficult to quickly recover the corpses and personal belongings of the victims, due to continuing fighting between pro Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army. The threat of violence made it also very hard to carry out a full-fledged investigation into the exact cause of the disaster. This investigation should have been carried out, among other things, on the basis of the debris of the plane.

Identification

In the Korporaal Van Oudheusden Kazerne in Hilversum, the Netherlands, the National Forensic Investigation Team (LTFO) is working on the identification of the bodies of the victims of the MH17-disaster that have been transported from Ukraine to the Netherlands. To this end the LFTO make use of fingerprints, dental records and DNA material. On Friday 10 October 2014 272 victims had been identified, among whom 175 Dutch nationals. The identity of 26 victims has yet to be established. The Cabinet announced that on Monday 10 November 2014 a national commemoration ceremony of the plane crash will be held in Amsterdam.