Dutch identify all foreign MH17 crash victims

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Dutch authorities have identified 2 more victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash in Ukraine, with just four of the 298 dead still unidentified, all of them Dutch, officials said Thursday, December 11.

“Two victims of flight MH17 have been identified this week,” the Dutch justice ministry ministry said in a statement.

One of those identified is Dutch and the other a different nationality, the ministry said, declining to specify which in accordance with embassy wishes.

The four victims yet to be identified are all Dutchnationals, the ministry said. Citizens of 11 countries died in the disaster.

The Boeing 777 was blown out of the sky on July 17 over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, killing everyone on board, two-thirds of them Dutch.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of supplying pro-Kremlin insurgents with the missile that shot down the jet, but Moscow and the separatists deny they were responsible and have instead pointed the finger at Kiev. 

As well as victim identification, Dutch authorities are charged with establishing exactly what brought the plane down and are reconstructing part of the aircraft as part of their probe.

A preliminary report in September said that the plane “broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.” – Rappler.com