Half of MH17 crash victims identified: report

THE HAGUE (Xinhua) - Half of the number of victims of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 plane crash have been identified, the Dutch National Forensic Investigation Team stated through a private forum for relatives, national broadcaster NOS reported on Saturday.

In total, identities of 149 victims is now known for their relatives, which is exactly half the number of the 298 people who were on board flight MH17. Of the crash victims were 196 Dutch nationals.

On July 23, the first aircraft with remains and bodies of the victims arrived at Eindhoven Airport, followed by several other flights. The coffins were brought to the Corporal Van Oudheusden barracks in Hilversum for the identification of the victims.

The flights were part of the recovery and repatriation mission led by the Netherlands. The mission was stopped ten days ago until further notice due to the deteriorating security conditions at the crash site in eastern Ukraine.

On July 17, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, went down in eastern Ukraine,  killing all 298 people on board. The cause of the incident remains unknown and the investigation cannot go smoothly due to the armed conflict in the region.