Family of MH17 victims finally view wreckage of downed flight

Relatives of those killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed over eastern Ukraine visited a Dutch air base Tuesday to view the wreckage of the plane. For almost all of them, it was the first chance to see the twisted and charred wreckage that lay for months in the battlefields of eastern Ukraine after the plane plunged to the ground July 17, most likely after being hit by a missile. All 298 passengers and crew on board the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed. The wreckage was brought back to the Netherlands, where civil and criminal investigations are underway to establish the cause of the disaster and attempt to prosecute those responsible.

It brings it very close to home. It is where they spent their last hours.

Silene Fredriksz-Hoogzand, whose son, Bryce, and his girlfriend, Daisy Oehlers, were on board the stricken flight

The wreckage, spread across three hangars, included wings, wheels, parts of the fuselage and overhead luggage bins. Some of it was scorched black by fire, while some pieces of the plane’s thin metal body were scratched, twisted and torn. Experts will soon begin piecing together parts of the plane to help investigators assess the damage and definitively establish the cause, said Sara Vernooij, a spokeswoman for the Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the civilian probe. The board’s chairman, Tjibbe Joustra, said the final report would likely be published in October.

I … could not bear the sight of it.

Yasmine Calehr, the grandmother of two brothers who died on MH17, lives in Houston, Texas and decided not to go see the wreckage.

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