Some poignant journalism.
A Column of 40 Hearses Meets the Victims of the Malaysia Airlines Crash, The New York Times, 24 July, page A6
Eindhoven Air Base, the Netherlands . . . At 3.48pm on Wednesday, a military cargo plane belonging to the Australian Air Force [sic] touched down at the Eindhoven Air Base, home to the Royal Netherlands Air Force, in the southern Netherlands. On board were 24 coffins. Soon afterward, a second, smaller plane landed, its thundering propellers piercing the silence. It was carrying 18 coffins.
Along the tarmac, flags representing the 17 nationalities of the 298 victims of the crash stood at half-staff, their lines clinging to the flagpoles in the warm summer-wind.
. . .
After the propeller plane switched off its engines, a heavy silence filled the air. Columns of military representatives appeared from the western side of the airfield, marching in formation toward the planes. Forty black, identical hearses followed them.
There were no speeches or obvious tears, but a lone solider played the "Last Post" on his trumpet . . .
One minute of silence followed, on the airfield and in the rest of the Netherlands. A public television station, NOS, reported that church bells had rung across the country right after the planes landed. Truckers, many of whom had tied black ribbons to their vehicles, stopped on the sides of highways. In shops and coffee-houses, music was stopped.
. . .
After all 40 countries had been loaded in, the cars left in a column towards Hilversum, an hour and a half north. One of the Netherlands' main highways, the A2, was partly closed off. Along the highway and on overpasses, people, some crying, threw flowers. Car driving in the other lane stopped as the hearses passed.
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