Australia, Netherlands push plan for UN team to secure the crash site

World Today

Australia, Netherlands push plan for UN team to secure the crash sitePeople lay flowers at the entrance of the Korporaal van Oudheusdenkazerne, army barracks, in Hilversum, on July 24, 2014 where bodies of the people killed in the Malaysia Airlines MH17 air crash in Ukraine will be identified. (Photo: AFP/ANP/Jerry Lampen)

It’s been a week since Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down in Eastern Ukraine, and Australia and the Netherlands are pushing for a plan for a UN team to secure the crash site. CCTV-America’s Richard Bestic reports.

MH17: Second day of victims\' bodies returning to the Netherlands

Richard Bestic reports from Hilversum Military Base, where the bodies are arriving. The next step that lies ahead: DNA matching.

A second flight returned another tragic cargo from the carnage and chaos of the Ukrainian crash site. Bodies of the victims were brought back to the place their fateful journey began one week ago.

Dignity is the watchword as a second fleet of funeral hearses — in each, a single coffin — makes the journey to Holland’s Military Medical facility in Hilversum, where the process of identification will begin.

Australia, Netherlands push plan for UN team to secure the crash site

It's been a week since Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down in Eastern Ukraine. Australia and the Netherlands are pushing a plan for a UN team to secure the crash site. Two planes carrying more remains have arrived in the Netherlands. CCTV's Richard Bestic reports.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak signed a book of condolences at the Dutch Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, and said formally identifying the bodies will be difficult.

“It is expected that this whole process will take weeks, it might even be months, we are not sure yet,” he said.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot turned up the international tensions surrounding the fate of MH17, promising Australian police a part of the international team to secure the crash site. Abbott said that at the moment, rebels still controlled the Ukraine crash site.

“Nothing is happening without the approval of the armed rebels who most likely brought the plane down in the first place. There has still not been anything like a thorough professional search of the area where the plane came down. And there can’t, there can’t be while the site is controlled by armed men with a vested interest in the outcome of any investigation.” -Tony Abbott, Australian Prime Minister

Outside the Hilversum Military Medical facility lays a floral tribute to the dead.