MH17: First victims of Malaysia Airlines crash arrive in the Netherlands

The bodies of the first victims from the Malaysian airliner shot down over Ukraine last week have arrived at a military base in the Netherlands.

The 40 bodies were flown to the Eindhoven air base from Ukraine in a Dutch Hercules C-130 and a Royal Australian Air Force Boeing C-17.

It was a near flawless, beautiful summer day here in Eindhoven, but out of that near perfect sky came two military aircraft mid-afternoon - one of them an RAAF C-17.

Both of these planes were carrying that precious cargo - the bodies of 40 of those who were on Flight MH17.

Waiting on the tarmac were dignitaries, including the King and Queen of the Netherlands, the Dutch prime minister and the Australian Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

There were also loved ones, mostly Dutch, but the Foreign Minister said there were Australians related to some of those who had been killed.

Then there was a sad procession as these caskets, one by one, were taken off the planes, down the ramp and into waiting hearses, and the hearses slowly drove away.

The folks of Eindhoven have been coming laying wreaths, laying flowers there as they watched as these hearses passed by. That created for locals a sense of great grief, of sadness, and also anger for what is still going on in the fields of eastern Ukraine.

This was the first flight today with these two and over the coming days there will be more flights like this, and officials have said with each and every night, with each and every casket that comes off those planes, the same dignity, the same ceremony, the same honour will be accorded to each and every one of them here.

Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop joined the Dutch king and queen and prime minister Mark Rutte to receive the bodies.

Ms Bishop said it was not known whether any of the Australian victims were among those to arrive.

"We greeted each casket today as if an Australian were on board, but of course this ceremony will be repeated over the next couple of days so that all of the bodies that have been located can be afforded the same dignity and respect and honour that was afforded to them today," said Ms Bishop, who will head to Ukraine for high-level discussions on the downing of flight MH17.

A military guard of honour stood to attention as a trumpeter played The Last Post, the military funeral call for people killed in war.

Across the Netherlands, bells pealed and flags flew at half mast in memory of the 298 people killed when MH17 came down in eastern Ukraine en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

It was the first national day of mourning in the Netherlands since Queen Wilhelmina died in 1962.

Most of those killed were Dutch, but the fatalities also included at least 37 Australian citizens and permanent residents.

Relatives of some of the victims were present at the airport but were shielded from the media glare, officials said.

Thousands of people lined the 100-kilometre route and watched from motorway bridges as the cortege travelled from Eindhoven to the military base at Hilversum.

The bodies will remain there until they can be identified, a task that could take months.

As the cortege passed, drivers spontaneously stopped their cars and watched silently from the side of the motorway.

Some clapped in tribute, others threw flowers on the hearses.

The process will be repeated many times over coming days as the bodies of all the victims are brought home.

At an earlier ceremony, Retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston farewelled the bodies as they were flown out of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

"We are here today, representatives of the many nations touched by the tragedy of flight [MH]17, to honour all of those who were lost, to pay our respects to them as they begin their journey home," Air Chief Marshal Houston said.

"This is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions and on behalf of the Prime Minister of Australia, I express the deepest sympathy of all Australians for the families of those who were lost."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has warned victim identification will be difficult.

"It may take quite some time but our personnel, both Australian and Dutch, are amongst the best and most experienced in the world," he said.

Meanwhile, the black boxes from the ill-fated flight have been delivered to Britain for expert analysis, the UK government said.

The recorders have been sent to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) headquarters in Farnborough, south-west of London.

The AAIB is responsible for investigating civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents in Britain.

It also provides assistance and expertise to the "international air accident community" to help improve aviation safety worldwide.

"The fundamental purpose of investigating accidents is to determine the circumstances and causes of the accident with a view to the preservation of life and the avoidance of accidents in the future," the branch says of its work.

"It is not to apportion blame or liability."

It says it aims to conduct "thorough, independent, impartial and timely investigations".

Possible Many more MH17 Bodies with Wreckage, Says Australia PM

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday it was possible that many bodies from the MH17 crash were still lying in the open in Ukraine, as remains were recovered from a morgue train.

All 298 people onboard the Malaysia Airlines jet, including 28 Australian nationals and nine residents, were killed after the aircraft was apparently shot down over eastern Ukraine last week.

"It's quite possible that many bodies are still out there, in the open in the European summer, subject to interference, and subject to the ravages of heat and animals," Abbott told a press conference.

The remains of victims were taken by train to the government-held Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, after rebels controlling the crash site finally released them and the plane's black boxes under intense international pressure.

Dutch experts have said they were only sure 200 bodies had been recovered so far -- well short of accounting for all those onboard.

"Based on early inspection of the carriages in Kharkiv, we just don't know how many bodies we have," Abbott told reporters in Canberra.

The Australian leader called for a "full recovery search" of the vast crash site, saying such an operation was "necessary if all of the bodies are to be recovered".

He added that he had "serious concerns" about the recovery of the victims' bodies.

"It has been up until now quite unprofessional," he said.

"As long as it's possible that there are any Australian remains out there, we owe it to the families to do our utmost to recover them."

Abbott, whose government was behind a U.N. Security Council resolution that Monday unanimously demanded full access to the site, has been highly critical of efforts to secure the crash zone.

He said his special envoy in eastern Ukraine, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, told him the crash site needed to be secured and that a "large team" was required to "identify anything that might have been missed up to now".

"Because it's entirely possible in his view that there could be further human remains or further significant wreckage in the area," Abbott said, adding that the debris zone was estimated to cover about 50 square kilometers (19.3 square miles).

"It might be the partial remains of a loved one. It might be a small but critical piece of the aircraft or the missile that is the key to the investigation."

Pro-Russian separatist and prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Borodai has said his rebels "will order a ceasefire in an area of 10 kilometers around" the site of the disaster.

Abbott's comments came as U.S. intelligence officials said the Malaysian flight may have been shot down by "mistake" by ill-trained pro-Russian separatists, while dismissing Moscow's accounts of the incident as propaganda.

Earlier, Abbott said Australian families affected by the tragedy would be offered the opportunity to go to the Netherlands -- where the remains will be identified -- to travel home with the bodies.

"By its very nature, it may take some weeks before we can honor the dead by returning them to those they loved and those that loved them. But we will bring them home," Abbott said in a statement.