Services to mark anniversary of shooting down of Flight MH17
Services will be held in Australia, Malaysia and in the Netherlands on July 17 to mark the first anniversary of the shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine.
The tragic incident claimed the lives of 298 passengers and crew on Flight MH17 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott said Australian flags will be flown at half-staff on all government buildings throughout the country.
Politicians will be recalled to Parliament House for the national service and a plaque is to be unveiled in the House of Representatives’ gardens inscribed with the names of all the victims.
"We continue to support families who deal with the pain of loss and who have a deep yearning for justice," he told Parliament.
Ukraine and the West suspect that Flight MH17 was bought down by a Russian surface-to-air missile fired by Russian forces or separatist rebels who were fighting in the area.
But earlier this month, the Russian maker of the Buk air defense missile system concluded the plane was shot down by an older version of the missile, which is not in service with the Russian military but is in Ukrainian arsenals.
The incident happened just a few months after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Still no trace of it has been found.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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