Information merchandise | 17-07-2024 | 17:17
At this time marks the tenth anniversary of the demise of 298 passengers on flight MH17 over Ukraine by a Russian Buk missile. The flag on the Ministry of Defence and different departments is subsequently flying at half-mast. Minister of Defence Ruben Brekelmans represented Defence on the commemoration on the Nationwide Monument MH17 in Vijfhuizen.
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The MH17 aircraft crash continues to be etched within the reminiscences of many protection workers. Some have been immediately concerned in bringing the victims again to the Netherlands.
One in every of them is Adjutant Hielke of the Royal Marechaussee’s carrying group. Collectively along with his colleagues, he lifted the coffins of the deceased after their return to the Netherlands at Eindhoven air base.
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Dealing with loss
“I’ll always remember that,” he says. “All of the sudden you’re standing there on a touchdown platform of an air base, in deathly silence. You see lengthy rows of hearses. And then you definately stroll to a aircraft and you understand: there are a whole lot of coffins in there and now it’s time for it.
With our carrying group, we carried about 30 coffins to the hearses in 4 days. I’m pleased with that. However, it isn’t about us. It’s in regards to the kin. They need to take care of a lot loss.”
Schoof addresses kin
Family have been current in giant numbers in the course of the commemoration in Vijfhuizen. Prime Minister Dick Schoof spoke to them with sympathy. “I would really like nothing greater than for you to not be right here. I want that you’d simply do at present what you do each Wednesday. And that this monument didn’t exist. As a result of that’s the way it ought to be.”
Schoof additionally remembered the victims. “How we want it have been attainable. That we might deliver again our family members, whatever the legal guidelines of nature. And though we all know in a nook of our minds that this isn’t attainable, we nonetheless attempt to get as shut as attainable. With all the things we will. By coming collectively. By calling their names, And conserving them alive in our hearts, our reminiscences and our tales. 298 occasions.”
