MH17 coffins met by grieving relatives

Thirty-eight coffins transported aboard an Australian C17 Globemaster and a Dutch C130 Hercules have been met by 350 relatives of the victims in Eindhoven.

Australia's special envoy Angus Houston looks on as a body is carried

Grieving relatives have met bodies from MH17 with quiet applause in the Netherlands. (AAP)

The last of the MH17 bodies that were trained out of eastern Ukraine have arrived in the Netherlands to be met with quiet applause from more than 300 grieving relatives.

Thirty-eight coffins were transported from Kharkiv to Eindhoven airbase on Saturday aboard an Australian C17 Globemaster and a Dutch C130 Hercules.

With military precision, the RAAF transporter, carrying 19 caskets, landed on schedule at 3.45pm local time (2345 AEST). Three minutes later the Hercules touched down.

The coffins were met by 350 relatives of the victims. Most were Dutch. It's not known if any were Australian.

The Netherlands lost almost 200 people when Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was downed nine days ago while carrying 298 passengers. Up to 39 Australian citizens and residents perished in the disaster.

An official delegation was at the airport to watch the coffins be carried from the planes into black hearses.

Among them was Australian Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Australia's ambassador to The Hague, Neil Mules.

As the hearses set off for Hilversum military barracks near Amsterdam - where the grim forensic identification task is being carried out - family members softly applauded.

The Dutch aren't sure how many bodies are now in the Netherlands, but in total 227 coffins carrying remains have arrived since the shuttle flights began on Wednesday.

An unknown number of bodies remain at the crash site in rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine.

The remains that arrived on Saturday were unloaded at Eindhoven by members of the Dutch armed forces after the last post and a minute's silence.

In the Holland heat, the silence was only interrupted by the rhythmic pinging of wires against flag-poles bearing 18 flags flown at half mast, and the clicking of press photographers' cameras.

The flags fluttering in the breeze represented the 18 countries affected by the disaster.


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