Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17

Planes carrying the remains of as many as 74 people lands a military base in Eindhoven, Netherlands.  A lone bugler sounds the military farewell Last Post to mark the victims’ arrival, followed by a moment of silence.

Two military aircraft carrying 40 bodies arrive in the Dutch city of Eindhoven shortly before 4 p.m. (10 a.m. ET). A lone bugler was there, and a moment of silence was held across the country. Families of the victims and Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima are there when the planes arrive.

The two flight recorders are delivered to Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) headquarters in London. A Department for Transport spokeswoman tells AFP:

We can confirm that the two black boxes from MH17 have been delivered by the Dutch Safety Board to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch at Farnborough for download.

AAIB expects to send the details of their findings to the Dutch government in approximately 24 hours. Ukraine’s government says the black boxes were transferred to Britain under the observation of the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation and that the vital data recorders were flown out of Kiev following an agreement between Malaysian, Dutch and Ukrainian officials and representatives from the ICAO:

Under the protocol it was determined that the objects called ‘black boxes’ were presented to the Ukrainian side but the Ukrainian side did not get involved with them and these objects did not remain under Ukrainian control for even one minute

 

The train carrying as many as 298 remains of the victims of flight MH17 arrives at an army base in Ukraine today. The remains will be unloaded and put on a plane to be flown to Netherlands.

Dutch forensics experts, accompanied by representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), arrive at the crash site. Wearing shirts bearing the insignia of the forensics unit of the Dutch national police and latex gloves and masks they conduct an inspection of bodies that lay in black bags piled on to three rail cars. Ukrainian Prime Minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, says pro-Russian rebels who control the area are preventing the trains from leaving.

Malaysia Airlines announces it will offer full refunds to any passengers who wish to cancel their reservations.  They are also waiving any fees involved for customers wanting to change their travel plans, including tickets specified as non-refundable.  This is in response to the two recent incidents involving their planes, flights MH370 and MH17.

Our Enrich passengers will also receive fee waivers for any changes to their travel itinerary, as well as refunds of miles should they choose to cancel their redemption tickets.

This waiver is applicable for any travel booked between July 18th and December 31st of this year. The airline has already suffered losses amounting to $1.3 billion over the previous three years, before the tragedies occurred.