The Netherlands has declared a national day of mourning for its 173 victims of a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane downed over the east of Ukraine on Thursday afternoon.

Nearly 200 people were on board the plane when it crashed. There were no survivors.

An emergency worker at the crash site said at least 100 bodies had been found and that debris was spread over a 15 kilometre area.

Malaysia Airlines plans to fly victims’ relatives to the crash site near Donetsk.

Passengers flying from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to Kuala Lumpur today spoke about yesterdays crash.

“We had booked to fly yesterday but we changed it,” said one passenger waiting to board Friday’s Flight MH17. “We could have been on that flight, it is by chance we weren’t. That’s the way it is.”

Another passenger commented that, “everybody is scared when something like this happens.” When asked what it will be like on today’s plane journey to Malaysia, she said she intends to, “pray a lot. And for the rest, God will decide.”

Future Malaysia Airlines flights between Schiphol and Kuala Lumpur will take a different route to avoid flying over Ukrainian air space.

Some other airlines changed their flight paths months ago, as a precaution, despite there being no air restrictions in place over Ukraine.