As the Dutch remember the victims of downed flight MH17, investigators are still trying to piece together the tragedy and provide some answers nearly four months after the tragedy. Kitty Logan reports from Ukraine, reports GHN based on DW.
The Dutch recovery team has a grim and painstaking task: to slowly search through the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 and try to find human remains or personal items buried in the charred and twisted metal. They walk somberly through the crash site in a line, until one raises a hand to indicate they may have found something of interest. A careful fingertip search follows.
Five bodies were discovered here in recent days, several months after the crash on July 17. The Dutch government has warned it may be difficult to find the remaining nine missing people, but the searches will continue. Most of the 298 passengers and crew on board Flight MH17 were Dutch.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine is helping to facilitate the visits to the crash site for the Dutch investigators. "There is of course still hope that more human remains can still be found, so that more people can be identified, so that all families can get back their loved ones," Alexander Hug, deputy head of the OSCE monitoring mission to Ukraine, told DW. "What then remains is of course the removal of the debris."
That process should begin in the coming days and weeks. Much of the debris lies scattered in the fields, exactly as it fell, over an area of several square kilometers. There are seats, oxygen masks, parts of engines and the undercarriage and even the plane's tail fin dispersed across the countryside.
The main point of impact of the central part of the plane still smells of burnt fuel, but the site is now desolate, windswept and cold. Local residents have placed teddy bears by the wreckage to mourn the children who died. A wreath at the roadside expresses sorrow for those who lost their lives.
Somewhat belatedly, investigators are putting signs up to protect the site. They also post notices on nearby telegraph poles to appeal to local people to come forward with information. But most here are weary of this international incident which has changed their lives - and their village - forever.
