THE HAGUE, December 5. /TASS/. Almost five months after the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine, forensic experts in the Netherlands have identified the remains of 292 people who were killed in the crash. Six of the 298 victims of July's crash are still unaccounted for, the Dutch government said on Friday.
Specialists this week identified another three victims, one of which was a Dutch national, the Dutch Justice and Security Ministry said in its weekly update. As in previous updates, it declined to disclose the nationality of the other victims. Relatives of those victims have already been notified.
Starting from July, experts have been working to identify bodies and incomplete sets of remains gathered from the scene and flown back to the Netherlands. It is not clear yet when the identification process will be completed.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed on July 17 in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, some 60 km (over 37 miles) from the Russian border, in the zone of combat operations between the Donetsk self-defense forces and the Ukrainian army. All passengers and crewmembers on board the aircraft — 298 people — died. The Netherlands had the highest death toll in the disaster, with 196 victims.
A report by the Dutch safety board leading the investigation said in September that Flight MH17 crashed after a “large number of high-energy objects” penetrated its fuselage.