Bodies of 9 victims killed in MH17 crash brought to Malaysia

World September 02, 2014, 9:06

Out of 43 Malaysians that were on board of the crashed airliner, bodies of 32 victims have been identified

SINGAPORE, September 2. /ITAR-TASS/. A special flight bound from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur has brought bodies of 9 victims killed in Boeing crash in Ukraine, including bodies of two Dutch nationals.

A commemorative event was held in the Malaysian airport, followed by a minute of silence throughout the country.

This is already the third plane that brings home bodies of the victims of the Malaysian Airlines’ airliner crash. The country’s Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said earlier that out of 43 Malaysians that were on board of the crashed airliner, bodies of 32 victims have been identified, and almost all have been brought to homeland.

Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein emphasized that “the return of all the catastrophe’s victims is one of the priority tasks of the Malaysian government”. He added that in order to do that, it was necessary that the experts got back to the Boeing’s crash site.

Malaysian authorities intend to insist on the return of experts to the Boeing 777 crash site in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, but admit it is difficult under the current conditions.

It may be called a miracle if it is possible to do it in connection with the continuing conflict, Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

MH17 tragedy

Boeing 777 of Malaysian Airlines en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed July 17 in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. All the 298 people who were on board died. The major part of them — 196 people — were citizens of the Netherlands.

According to preliminary data, international experts working at a military base in the Netherlands to identify the victims have revealed 283 unique DNA samples obtained at the site of the tragedy. The bodies of 173 passengers have already been identified.

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