matthew price, bbc news, schiphol airport. >> just a brief time ago i heard from matthew at the schiphol airport in amsterdam and i started by asking him from what we knew about who was on board the plane. >> well, the c.e.o. of schiphol airport has just given a particularly harrowing press conference inside this terminal billing in which he has outlined the fact that the majority of the people on board were of dutch nationalty, 154 dutch. we also know 27 australians, 23 malaysians, 6 british people on board, some belgians, french and other nationalities as well. so the dutch prime minister, who was in belgium during the day, cut short that visit and came back to the nation's capital, the hague, during the late afternoon. i don't know if there's any later statement from him at this stage but he had already, of course, sent out his condolences and feelings to those relatives and friends of those on board. >> matthew price, at schiphol airport. thank you for joining us. and following news of the crash as we mentioned, the ukrainian military and pro-russian rebels immediately acudesed each

along with the anguish at schiphol's airport -- >> we were supposed to be on that flight. obviously something watching over us and said no, don't get on that flight. >> reporter: david, we've seen the desperate families gather here all night in amsterdam schiphol airport trying to get more information. here's what we know so far. the majority of passengers on board that flight were dutch nationals, but at this hour, there are still dozens of unidentified passengers, unidentified nationalities. we still don't know if there were any americans on board. >> still so many families around the world and here in america waiting for that list. thank you. we will have much more on the disaster in the sky tonight. >>> as all of this was playing out today, another international story broke, this one in the midwest. israel launching a ground incursion in gaza, the evidence already being seen in the nighttime sky. abc's hamish macdonald reporting in tonight. >> reporter: the blazing night sky above gaza was the give away. after hours of heavy shelling, confirmation israel has begun the

seventeen it took off from amsterdam's schiphol airport at ten fifteen g.m.t. heading for kuala lumpur it flew over the netherlands and then across germany and poland as well when it entered ukrainian airspace passing over volatile eastern ukraine the boeing seven seven seven was fifty kilometers from the russia ukraine border when it lost contact with air traffic control it crashed near the village of gravity. now the nationalities over the majority of people on board the crashed malaysian airliner have been identified. one hundred fifty four to be exact what dutch another thirty eight victims were malaysian including the fifteen crewmembers also on the plane were nine britons four germans three filipinos and one canadians so worst hit has been the netherlands which has lost over one hundred fifty of its citizens probably boyko reports from amsterdam schiphol airport where the relatives of the victims are now coming to terms with what happened. that malaysian airlines flight was twinned with. flag carrying airline k l m and the majority of the passengers as yo

. >> reporter: tonight, desperate family members gathering at amsterdam's schiphol airport. flight 17 took off here this morning. and across the world, in kuala lumpur, where it was supposed to land. now, the first details emerging about those 295 souls on board. 280 passengers, 15 crew, all believed to have died. these haunting images of what appear to be their passports in the rubble. on board, australians, malaysians and brits, not all nationalities identified at this hour. more than 150 passenger dutch, like this couple on their way to a beach vacation in bali. the couple had recently opened a flower shop in their dutch hometown. he was a drummer in a band there. on his facebook page, this eerie message posted just before takeoff, what appears to be the doomed plane with the caption, shou it disappear, this wh ilooks like, a reference to t previous malaysian over th indian oceanhat in march. all day we've been seeing messages from distressed loved ones. one of the crews on board was my sister's friend one tweet read. >> you get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach.

this photo shows the actual plane just after flight 17 took off from amsterdam's schiphol airport bound for kuala lumpur. ukrainian controllers lost contact with the plane. the ukrainian government quickly said the plane had been hit by a surface-to-air missile at 33,000 feet. at the time, the plane was over contested territory in eastern ukraine, only 31 miles from the russian border. eyewitnesses on the ground reported seeing what looked like a missile, then an explosion in the sky. >> translator: the shooting was pretty intense before that. i heard a lot of noise in the sky, and i heard several shots and a strong bang. >> translator: i was inside my house when i heard two explosions. i ran out and saw black smoke everywhere. i thought that the house of my nephew was hit. i ran out and everything was just black, on fire. >> reporter: ukrainian authorities reported the wreckage was scattered over a nine-mile area and included very large pieces of the fuselage. to aviation experts, that suggests the plane likely came apart in midair. >> this is a high probability that the airplane did s

and we did also hear from schiphol airport in amsterdam which says the families and friends of the peopleho were on board that flight have started now arriving in amsterdam at the airport and that authorities there are organizing all of them into an area for them to gather. they are still, they in amsterdam, still waiting on the passenger manifest which will likely, as we have said, have to come from malaysia airlines itself. >> tom, back up to one of the points you just made because this affects so much air commerce and so big an area, british airways has under review the fact that they still have flights in and out of the city of kiev? >> that's correct. one flight a day out of -- apparently from heathrow into kiev. they're taking that under review. but they say they do not traverse ukrainian airspace, per se. i think i have flown over ukrainian airspace. it was many years ago flying from amsterdam into dubai. that's a pretty normal route to fly, if you're trying to get from europe into asia. this is not an unusual route, but i think that since, as we've seen clearly with the u.s. airli

at schiphol airport's growing memorial of flowers they were lining up to pay respects today. rita and her brother mohammed knew two of the passengers. >> unbelievable. unfair. i hope justice will be done. >> it was unjustified. unjustified. it wasn't a plane crash. it was i'd say an act of terrorism. >> reporter: but that anguish is beginning to turn into anger, anger aimed squarely at the pro-russian rebels in control of the crash site. >> the rebels and how respectless they are doing things now with the bodies and they don't allow the rescue teams in the area. that's not acceptable. >> reporter: world leaders now agreeing to apply additional sanctions on russia, even considering banning putin from a g-20 meeting of the world's most powerful nations in november. >> i think that this is the worst crime in his political life. if he wants to avoid becoming an international crime, he needs to withdraw everything he has in eastern ukraine, pretty much instantly. >> reporter: regardless of what president putin does here in the netherlands, the damage has already been done. >> inde

all all parts of the country schiphol airport where the flight of course originated from and everywhere around we've seen just real outpourings of grief horrific scenes of family members breaking down in tears but the planes have now come to a halt and i can tell you that some of the taking trees are gathering there and we are getting ready for a minute's silence the last post in the bugle will play and then there will be a minute's minutes of silence to remember the remembrance of those who died on board that tragic flight ok well we're keeping an eye on the pictures we are expecting that military ceremony and of course the moment's silence as well so we're going to keep an eye on those pictures and bring them to you as soon as we can you're watching r.t. international these are live pictures from our end hovan where the first bodies of the victims of the mh seventeen crash in eastern ukraine are being repatriated returned home to the netherlands we can see you can see pictures there i'm sure you're getting the same feed as us well what is happening now can you tell us. what it seems t

and as you said, family members and loved ones came here to schiphol airport in amsterdam earlier today to look for answers, find out anything, whether or not their loved ones were in fact on board. but they were swiftly taken away from reporters and to a local hotel. not many of them showing very much emotion in the process. we did hear from one woman, though, who was holding a baby. she was supposed to be on that flight but missed it at the last minute. and as you can imagine, she was very shaken up. >> i'm -- like i'm shaking. i don't even know what to do. and i -- i feel physically sick. coming through the airport in the taxi, i was just crying. i'm just thinking that i feel like i have been given a second chance. and so hopefully i'll see my family again. >> meanwhile, other in kuala lumpur, malaysia, an eerily similar sight what we saw months ago. family members crying out, demanding answers from both the malaysian airline and the malaysian government, but getting frustratingly little. also, disturbing reports out of malaysia tonight that as many as 80 children could have been on

can now reporting from the schiphol airport there in amsterdam for the very latest from the point of departure . relatives and friends would have gone to bed last night hoping that everything that took place yesterday was just a dreadful nightmare but poland has woken up this morning to nothing short of a national tragedy as you said the majority of the passengers on that flight were dutch nationals and that flight took off from here where i am in amsterdam people airport before it crashed in ukraine and the scenes we saw here yesterday absolute devastation of the devastated passengers relatives just trying to obtain information about what had happened to their loved ones and the grief and the shock of coming to terms with their losses it was just unbelievable we also know that a number of the passengers were headed to melbourne for an international aid conference with a sense of shock last night but this morning the country has woken up to the tragedy and the reality of that very high death toll from holland. and aviation security expert richard blum he told us that while experts ar

schiphol airport at ten fifteen g.m.t. heading for kuala lumpur it flew over the netherlands germany and poland then it entered ukrainian airspace passing over volatile eastern ukraine now the boeing seven hundred seven was fifty kilometers from the russia ukraine border when it lost contact with air traffic control and it crashed near the village of. the russia ukraine border before we get to her reports only further warn you of the report does contain some very graphic images judging by the pictures that it's a miracle that it hasn't hit any of the houses any of the residential houses located in that area at least we do not have any confirmation as to that regard representatives from self-proclaimed donetsk people's republic are said to have recovered the black boxes the flight data recorders now be handing them over to law school as initial reports suggested or. we cannot say with certainty however the prime minister of the self-proclaimed people's republic did say they're going to declare a truce for several days in or

seventeen this malaysia airlines was from schiphol airport in amsterdam and that's where our reports right now. relatives and friends would have gone to bed last night hoping that everything that took place yesterday was just a dreadful nightmare but holland has woken up this morning to nothing short of a national tragedy as you said the majority of the passengers on that flight were dutch nationals now flight took off from here where i am in amsterdam people airport before it crashed in ukraine and the scenes we saw here yesterday absolute devastation of the devastated passengers relatives just trying to obtain information about what had happened to their loved ones and the grief and the shock of coming to terms with their losses it was just unbelievable we also know that a number of the passengers were headed to melbourne print international aids conference with a sense of shock last night but this morning the country has woken up to the tragedy and the reality of that very high death toll from holland. also from our sister channel our spanish network r.t. espanol our correspondent

all all parts of the country and schiphol airport where the flight of course originated from and everywhere around we've seen just real outpourings of grief horrific scenes of family members breaking down in tears but the planes have now come to a halt and i can tell you that some of the taking trees are gathering there and we are getting ready for a minute's silence the last post in the bugle will play and then there will be a minute's minutes of silence to remember the remembrance of those who died on board that tragic flight ok well we're keeping an eye on the pictures we are expecting that military ceremony and of course the the moment silence as well so we're going to keep an eye on those pictures and bring them to you.

the tragedy and the reality of that very high death toll from poland multi-course one of the schiphol airport in amsterdam thank you. now with the plane on route from amsterdam to kuala lumpur was flying over the part of eastern ukraine where kiev continues to carry out its heavy military crackdown against anti-government forces it was then that it disappeared from radar shortly before it was due to enter a russian air space the ukrainian president petro poroshenko accused antigovernment fighters of downing the plane with a rocket calling the incident a terrorist attack but militia groups deny this saying they don't have any access to weapons capable of taking out a plane at the altitude this one was flying at a local activist say they have found the flight recorders amid the wreckage. the international has correspondents all around the world and from the spanish our correspondent francisco guyton at the scene of the crash right now with this report . the situation in this kilometer that is around is that you can see several pieces of the aircraft and also several bodies that the situation is

more than one hundred seventy of its citizens of course the plane the point of departure was schiphol airport in amsterdam and that's exactly where he is party boy that is right now. relatives and friends would have gone to bed last night hoping that everything that took place yesterday was just a dreadful nightmare but holland has woken up this morning to nothing short of a national tragedy as you said the majority of the passengers on that flight were dutch nationals and that flight took off from here where i am in amsterdam people airport before it crashed in ukraine and the scenes we saw here yesterday absolute devastation of the devastated passengers relatives just trying to obtain information about what had happened to their loved ones and the grief and the shock of coming to terms with their losses it was just unbelievable we also know that a number of the passengers were headed to melbourne for an international aid conference with a sense of shock last night but this morning the country has woken up to the tragedy and the reality of that very high death toll from holland and over now

elizabeth palmer is in the schiphol airport. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. well, it's been a week now exactly since mh-17 went down and this pile of flowers outside schiphol airport just continues to grow. it now stretches clear across the front of the departures terminal and people are still coming this morning to lay bouquets. meanwhile the dutch are relieved to see the bodies coming back to the netherlands, especially after the confusion and indignity at the crash site but of course that process has only just begun. the 51 bodies expected today will be flown to the military air field at einhoven. the same place 40 coffins were unloaded yesterday by a detail of dutch military personnel and one by one carried to waiting hearses in an austere and dignified ceremony. the national flags of all the victims flew at half staff while a group of dutch dignitaries looked on including the netherlands king willem and queen maxima. hundreds of family members also watching were kept out of sight to protect their privacy. there's no way of knowing who lies in these caske

when we were walking through those terminals behind me, at amsterdam schiphol airport, there's a sense of eeriness. it's empty, quiet, palpable. you can feel it. of course the families were here earlier today trying to gather as much information as possible. here's what we know at this hour. most of the passengers were dutch nationals, but of course officials are still trying to go through the passenger list, so there are still dozens of unidentified nationalities and unidentified passengers at this hour. again, you can just imagine how difficult it is for those families as they wait for word, as they wait for more information, david. >> abc's lama hasan reporting again in this half-hour. thank you. >>> we turn now to the other breaking story and this comes from the middle east, the ground incursion by israeli forces right now under way in gaza, already explosions lighting up the night sky, the pictures coming in. abc's alex marquardt is in gaza where those israeli troops are on the ground. >> reporter: good evening, david. all night israel has been pummeling the gaza strip from the se

starting to come home to their loved ones and here we are as you know in amsterdam in front of schiphol airport where mh-17 began it's journey and all the flours and all the people who want to remember and give dignity to the dead, this is not the day to conflate the truth with fiction, and that is one part of the propaganda machine. do they know what missile system was used? yes, in all likelihood. do they have the trajectory? yes, in all likelihood. do they have a very small amount of possibilities about how it happened? yes. and almost all of them point at the militants, and they are almost undoubtedly getting help from russia, and we know that, carol, because when we spoke to the self-appointed prime minister, who is desperate to be taken seriously as being in charge of his region, and that's a key component to this situation, when i asked him, is russia helping you? he wouldn't answer. and when i said, why won't you answer? if you want to be seen as the man in charge, shouldn't you be happy to say i'm the man in charge, nobody is helping me, and he said i will not answer. ask russia. i mea

sunday, their family mourns, laying flowers for the lost couple at amsterdam's schiphol airport. >> it, because maybe my son was on the picture. >> all their family wants now, the remains of bryce and daisy. >> i want the bodies. >> they can have everything, but the bodies. i want them back. >> take their iphones, take their money, take everything. i want to put my son and his girlfriend, bryce and daisy, together. together again. here. they have to be buried together. they died together. they loved each other. they'll be together for always. >> andre angle was a medical student from ontario, canada. the 24-year-old was on his way to bali for a vacation. now his two sisters say they are distraught without him. >> 10:00 p.m. and when i got the message from him saying, hey, good morning. the next time i write you guys will be in bali. and i said, please be safe, kiddo, i love you. and that was it. i'm pretty sure he saw it, because i sent it like five minutes after, but -- i hope he saw it. i just want him to come home. >> i keep going through calm stages where i just want to deal with

malaysian air flight 17 departed amsterdam's schiphol airport at 12:15 p.m. local time set for an 11 1/2 hour journey to kuala lumpur. but three hours in, ukrainian air traffic controllers lose contact with flight 17. officials later confirm the plane was shot down by a buk missile system near ukraine's donetsk region. 30 miles from ukraine's southeastern border with russia. at the time of the missile's impact, the aircraft was at a cruising altitude of 33,000 feet. meaning only an advanced buk missile system and not shoulder mounted launchers could have brought it down. the deadliest aviation incident since 9/11 on one of the most volatile regions on the globe. the remains of flight 17 and its passengers fell and caused a debris field as large as six square miles still painted with malaysia airlines now infamous colors. this morning local people have been trying to locate bodies. the charred earth, a temporary graveyard of innocent passengers from around the world. we're being told that western investigators will be allowed to get to the scene because people

chance, and hopefully, you know -- >> today the airport is operating normally, according to flight aware. today's malaysia airlines flight 17 from schiphol took off in the past hour. coming up we'll get u.s. reaction and we'll go live to moscow to hear how vladimir putin is handling this disaster. >>> now to the other top story. after ten days of air attack and a failed cease-fire attempt, israel has launched a ground invasion on the gaza strip. artillery, drones, tanks, and combat engineers all on the move. flares up and fires lit up the night sky. it continues this morning. we're just beginning to get a clearer picture of the initial casualties. the latest number. the israeli army says one of its soldiers are dead with another two on the other side. 20 palestinians are claimed to have been killed since this began. hamas has responded they call the invasion foolish. they said it would have "dreadful consequences." there's no telling yet how long this could last, but we're learning about specific and strategic places the israeli military may be trargting. richard engel is in gaza with more on that. >> reporter: it began with several stri