Pics: Poignant scenes as Netherlands repatriates the victims from MH17 crash

The Dutch are observing a day of national mourning as the bodies of those killed on MH17 flight return to the Netherlands.

The grief the Dutch nation must be feeling today is hard to comprehend. Forty coffins arrived at Eindhoven airport this afternoon from Ukraine, the first repatriation of the the 198 Dutch victims of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 that went down over eastern Ukraine last week. From the airport the coffins were unloaded by the military and transported by road 80 miles to Hilversum, where the process of identification will begin. The images of the long line of hearses on the motorway is deeply powerful and really brings home the scale of the atrocity.

Thousands of Dutch people along highway, watching, applauding. Oncoming traffic stopping now, out of respect #MH17 pic.twitter.com/7N8JQWAgEf — Ton Aarts (@ton_aarts) July 23, 2014

 

@tv2breaking Biler med 40 af 200 Hollændere der blev dræbt i #MH17 kører forbi #Utrecht. Landet er i sorg, men sammen pic.twitter.com/gU7ivBez8z — Eveline Sissing (@EvelineSissing) July 23, 2014

 

People watch colony of cars with #MH17's victims on its way to Hilversum where the identification process will start pic.twitter.com/4JSNepG7vI — Senay Ozdemir (@senaytweets) July 23, 2014

De colonne met rouwwagens is vertrokken van vliegbasis Eindhoven: http://t.co/svE1v1sXzc pic.twitter.com/tlYFuobj8Q — NOS (@NOS) July 23, 2014