Dutch air safety board said cockpit voice recorder successfully downloaded and contained 'valid data from the flight'

MH17's black boxes were delivered to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch base in Farnborough, Hampshire

But Dutch officials claim they counted only 200 victims, meaning a third of MH17's passengers may still be missing

Separatists claim they placed 282 complete corpses and body parts from 16 others on board refrigerated morgue train

There is concern over the total number of bodies that have been released by pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine

Torturous identification will now take place, which officials have warned is likely to take several months to complete

Aircraft, which left Ukraine this morning, were greeted by grieving relatives and members of the Dutch royal family

Bodies of around 200 international victims of the MH17 plane massacre have arrived in Eindhoven, Netherlands


Queen Maxima of the Netherlands broke down in tears alongside members of the Dutch royal family as the first bodies of those killed in the MH17 crash arrived back in Holland during a poignant and emotional ceremony attended by relatives of the victims.



The remains of around 40 international victims of the Malaysia Airlines tragedy left Ukraine's Kharkiv airport on two military planes yesterday, ahead of a painstaking identification process which is expected to take several months.

The dignified reception at Eindhoven airport is in stark contrast to the treatment of the victims' remains in eastern Ukraine in the days after the crash, where pro-Russian rebels left corpses to decay in the summer heat in body bags dumped around the crash site.

Among those attending the solemn ceremony were King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, who held on to each other's hands as the bodies were removed from the transporter aircraft. At several points the Dutch Queen was seen wiping tears from her face.

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Upset: Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (pictured centre alongside her husband King Willem-Alexander) wipes away a tear as the bodies of victims of the MH17 crash are removed from an air force transport plane and placed in hearses at Eindhoven airport Left to right: Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima at the airbase in Eindhoven look visibly distressed as the bodies arrive King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of The Netherlands attend a ceremony upon the arrivals of a plane from Ukraine carrying the remains of victims The first bodies of those killed in the MH17 crash have arrived in the Netherlands to be greeted by grieving relatives and the Dutch royal family British father Barry Sweeney, 52, travelled through the night to meet the planes in the hope that the body of his son Liam, 28, might be on board. He said: ‘We need closure. We need to see our children. All the families, the mums, the dads, brothers, sisters, we need them back here.’

He and his other son Marc, 25, comforted each other during the sombre ceremony yesterday. RELATED ARTICLES Previous

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Next 'MH17 was hit by mistake': US intelligence chiefs reveal... The selfish cowardice of Germany, France and Italy whose... 'Smiling happy faces, off to start a new life': Airport... Share this article Share Dutch military personal then carried each coffin on their shoulders to a motorcade of hearses. They were driven to military barracks in Hilversum, where the process of identifying them began. Last night, it was unclear whether any of the bodies that arrived in the Netherlands were those of British citizens. Mr Sweeney, from Killingworth, North Tyneside, managed to catch a flight from Newcastle to Amsterdam early yesterday morning after renewing his passport on a fast-track. Mr Sweeney, a full-time carer for terminally-ill wife Lesley, 53, told the Mail last night: ‘The whole day has been very moving. There were lots of tears.

‘The ceremony did everyone proud – not just the Dutch but all the nations. The Dutch handled everything really well. The victims were brought home with dignity here. ‘It’s such a contrast to what happened in Ukraine.’

Yesterday morning the black boxes from flight MH17 arrived in Farnborough, Hampshire, where a team of British investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch will analyse its contents for clues about what happened in the moments before the plane was shot out the sky. The Dutch air safety board said the cockpit voice recorder had been successfully downloaded and contained 'valid data from the flight'.

Arrival: The first bodies of those killed in the MH17 massacre have arrived in Eindhoven to be greeted by grieving relatives and members of the Dutch royal family. The remains of around 40 international victims of the Malaysia Airlines tragedy left Ukraine's Kharkiv airport on two planes earlier

The dignified reception at Eindhoven airport was in stark contrast to the treatment of the victims' remains in eastern Ukraine in the days after the crash

Tears: Members of the Dutch royal family - including King Willem-Alexander (second from left) and Queen Maxima (centre) - were in Eindhoven to meet the plane. Senior Dutch politicians and the grieving relatives of the 298 victims were also in attendance

Finally shown respect: A coffin containing the body of an MH17 crash victim is placed in the back of a hearse at Eindhoven airport

Released: The bodies of 40 victims arrived at Eindhoven airport on two military planes - one of them this Dutch Air Force C-130 Hercules - earlier this afternoon

A convoy of hearses containing the remains of 40 victims of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 disaster drives past international flags as it leaves Eindhoven airport en route to a military base in nearby Hilversum

Flags - including that of Malaysia (centre) were seen flying at half mast as the convoy of hearses made their way from Eindhoven military air base Respect: King Willem-Alexander (second left) Queen Maxima (third left) and Prime Minister Mark Rutte (third right) observe a minute of silence during a ceremony to mark the return of the first bodies of passengers and crew killed in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17

Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frans Timmermans (right) comforts a relative of a victim after the arrival of the plane carrying the bodies of the victims

MH17'S BLACK BOX FLIGHT RECORDERS ARRIVE IN UK FOR ANALYSIS BY BRITISH AIR CRASH INVESTIGATORS

Air crash investigators have been able to download 'valid' information from the flight MH17 black box cockpit voice recorder. The Dutch Safety Board which is leading the investigation into the Malaysia Airlines tragedy said an international team of investigators, working in Hampshire, had conducted a thorough examination of the cockpit voice recorder (VCR) . In a statement the board said: 'The CVR was damaged but the memory module was intact. Furthermore no evidence or indications of manipulation of the CVR was found. Information: Four days after flight MH17 crashed from the sky over Ukraine, rebels finally handed over the Boeing 777's flight recorders (pictured). The black boxes have now arrived in the UK for analysis by British air crash investigators

'Following the examination, the CVR data was successfully downloaded and contained valid data from the flight. 'The downloaded data have to be further analysed and investigated.' As the UK investigators poured over the black boxes, bodies from the crash site were arriving in Netherlands where the country's king and queen were taking part in a national day of mourning. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima are in Eindhoven with relatives of the 298 people - including 10 Britons - killed in the disaster. Critical role: David Cameron tweets that British investigators would be drafted in to examine the black boxes An unconfirmed number of bodies were released by the rebels yesterday and taken to the Ukrainian government-controlled city of Kharkiv by train. Two military aircraft will fly some of them to Eindhoven this afternoon, where they will be met by the royals, Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and relatives. A minute's silence was held before the motorcade took them to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks, where the process of identifying them will begin.

The convoy of hearses carrying coffins containing the remains of victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 arrives at the Korporaal van Oudheusden Kazerne in front a crowd of people lined up along the road Sombre: The convoy of funeral hearses arrives at the Korporaal van Oudheusdenkazerne in Hilversum, The Netherlands Family members of the victims killed in Flight MH17 plane disaster wait outside Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks in Hilversum as hearses carrying the victims arrive Family members of the victims killed in Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 plane disaster react as hearses carrying the victims arrive to be identified Relatives of victims of the MH17 disaster line street outside the barracks in Hilversum where the bodies will be identified

People line the road to watch the convoy of funeral hearses as they arrive at the Korporaal van Oudheusdenkazerne in Hilversum

The convoy of funeral hearses arrive at the Korporaal van Oudheusdenkazerne in Hilversum where they will be identified A motorcade accompanies a line of hearses carrying the bodies of victims killed in Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 outside Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks The Netherlands government held a minute's silence before a motorcade took the bodies to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks

He said this information would then be handed the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) which will use sophisticated software called Bonaparte to match those samples to the victims.

The NFI said this process was completed in around 30 days during an investigation into a 2010 plane crash in Libya, which killed 104 people.

But with nearly three times as many bodies to examine - and others yet to be found - it suggests this investigation could take many months.

Mr van Roo said the identification process has been so distressing - even for experienced investigators - that the team is being assessed by a psychologist on a daily basis.

Remembrance: Stewardesses at Schiphol airport observe one-minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of flight MH17

The whole of Schiphol airport came to a standstill for one minute this afternoon in tribute to the victims of flight MH17. The doomed Malaysia Airlines plane departed from the airport last Thursday

Passengers waiting to board planes at Schiphol airport stand still during a minute's silence

Tribute: There was a minute's silence before a motorcade drove the bodies to Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks, where the process of identifying them will begin Salute: A Dutch military musician plays the Last Post at the airbase in Eindhoven as the victims' bodies are placed into hearses

Sombre: Hearses are seen lined up at Eindhoven airport to transport the bodies to Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks, where the process of identifying them will begin

A coffin containing the remains of an MH17 crash victim is carried off the cargo plane at Eindhoven airport

Grim journey: A refrigerated lorry containing the coffins of 40 MH17 victims was seen arriving at Khirkov airport this morning. The bodies have since been loaded on to aircraft, ready to be transported to the Netherlands Journey: The first bodies of those killed in the MH17 massacre have been loaded on to a cargo plane ready to be transported to Eindhoven in the Netherlands for a tortuous identification process that could take months A worker uses a forklift to load bodies on to the Royal Australian Air Force Boeing C-17 plane, ready to be transported to the Netherlands

Preparation: The bodies of around 200 international victims of the Malaysia Airlines tragedy have already been transported by train from rebel-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine to the government-controlled Kharkiv airport (pictured) Ready: A transport plane that will be used to carry the remains of the victims of Malaysia Airlines MH17 downed over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, is parked on the tarmac before heading to the Netherlands Tribute: Ukrainian officials attend a farewell ceremony next the transport plane that was used to carry the remains of some of the victims of MH17

The number of bodies on board the plane taking the bodies to the Netherlands is causing grieving relatives around the world fresh anguish after it emerged that as many as a third of the passengers could still be missing.

As the makeshift morgue arrived in the ‘safe’ Ukrainian city of Kharkiv yesterday rebel commanders claimed it contained 282 bodies and 87 body parts from an additional 16 people.

This would have accounted for all of the 298 murdered when the Boeing 777 was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile last week.

However, after carrying out a body count last night, Dutch forensic experts found the number to be ‘significantly less’ than the figure claimed by separatist leader Alexander Borodai.

The head of the Dutch team leading the investigation, Jain Tuinder, said he estimated just 200 bodies had arrived in Kharkiv as well as a number of unidentified body parts.

Mr Tuinder vowed to recover the others, saying: ‘They will be found. We have to find them... We will not leave until every remain has left this country so we will have to go on and bargain again with the people over there.’

Ceremony: A coffin containing the body of an MH17 victim is loaded onto a plane for transport to the Netherlands

Solemn: Four bodies are carried up to a transport plane during a ceremony at Kharkiv airport this morning. The bodies are being flown to the Netherlands after being recovered from the MH17 crash site

Salute: Dignitaries from the Netherlands, (Hans Docter, the Dutch Ambassador, third from left) and Australia (ambassador Gene Dunn, left of Mr Docter; Colonel Peter Steel, saluting in black hat; and retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, saluting in green hat) watch as the coffin of an MH17 victim is carried towards the plane

Heading to the Netherlands: Honour guards load a coffin of one of the victims of Malaysia Airlines MH17 on to a transport plane

Yesterday morning a train pulled into a station in the government-held city of Kharkiv, where the Dutch investigators took charge of the bodies.

A minute’s silence was held before the doors opened and international investigators finally began the gruesome task of trying to identify those inside.



There had been fears the bodies, including the ten Britons killed, would be used as a bargaining chip by pro-Russian separatists – believed to be behind the atrocity.

The train’s 185-mile journey from the crash site in the rebel-held village of Hrabove, eastern Ukraine, took 17 hours.

According to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, there are still human remains lying on the crash site.



'We observed the presence of smaller body parts at the site,' OSCE spokesman, Michael Bociurkiw, told a briefing in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk after his group inspected the site.

He said all recovery efforts seem to have ended but that at the site his group saw a plastic bag with some human remains left behind while Malaysian experts noticed a strong smell indicating the likely presence of more remains in another spot.

'We've never really seen that intensive combing over the site - people arm in arm going over the fields,' Bociurkiw said, adding there was effectively no security at the site and that so far only a small number of international experts visited it.

It has also emerged that the cockpit is believed to have been sawn in half while under the control of Russian-backed separatists.

International monitors said large parts of the cockpit and every part of the fuselage were carried off questioning why such important pieces of evidence has been tampered with.

The separatists and Russia have denied shooting down the plane, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

