Indentifying MH17 victims may take weeks

In a big temporary mortuary at a Dutch military base, teams of forensic specialists carefully examine MH17 victims for clues that will help identify them.

Dental records, fingerprints and DNA will mainly be used.

But scars, tattoos or medical procedures, clothing, jewellery and belongings can also provide vital information and are noted and photographed.

Several victims can be examined at the same time.

There are 200 international disaster victim identification experts are at the base, including 19 Australians.

The facility, which includes refrigerated storage containers and a mortuary in a big hall, is of similar scale to one set up after the Christchurch earthquake.

But authorities warn it could be months before all those brought back from Ukraine can be returned to their grieving families.

And they admit it is possible not all 298 passengers and crew from the Malaysia Airlines plane shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17 will be recovered.

Fighting in the war zone has delayed forensic experts reaching the site, bodies remain scattered among wreckage and some may have been destroyed in the fiery crash.

Although 227 coffins have been brought to the Netherlands, authorities are still unsure how many victims are inside.

The first MH17 passenger, a Dutchman, was identified just three days after the first military planes carried coffins from Ukraine.

But a British disaster victim identification expert who worked in Kharkiv in Ukraine to help transfer bodies to the Dutch military barracks says it may be weeks before other families receive the same closure.

"The identifications will be very slow at first and then we hope they'll pick up pace as the operation progresses," Det-Insp. Howard Way said.

"If it's rushed, that's when mistakes are made and we're not going to make any mistakes."

Forensic examinations can be fast-tracked if the bodies have belongings that provide a clue about their identity.

"If we process the easier identifications, it reduces the numbers and it's better for the families to get them back as quickly as possible," Det-Insp. Way said.

Nothing can be seen of the harrowing operation through the trees lining the perimeter of the Korporaal van Oudheusden base in Hilversum, south-east of Amsterdam.

Here, too, the entrance is blanketed with floral tributes and notes of condolence to the MH17 victims.

The Australian team, 19 at the Dutch base and another 19 in Ukraine, is led by Australian Federal Police chief scientist Simon Walsh.

Many on the team were involved in similar operations after the Bali bombings, the Christmas Island asylum seeker boat tragedy and the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

An AFP official said the 39 Australian citizens and residents killed in the attack represented the country's biggest loss of life offshore since the Bali bombings. Experts say the MH17 passengers may have suffered similar trauma to the bombing victims because both involved explosive fires.

After the bombings it took almost three weeks before the first victim was identified and more than four months for the last to come home.

Police have collected information from families for comparison with the MH17 remains, including DNA samples, medical records, strands of hair and even a glass or CD case they may have left fingerprints on.

Det-Insp. Way said it helped knowing exactly who they were trying to identify - unlike a tsunami or a bomb blast in a city centre, where it could be unclear who was killed.

But the operation was complicated by the catastrophic nature of the incident and that forensic experts were not involved in recovering the bodies.

Once investigators believe they have identified a person, an "identification commission" - a panel of experts - must review the findings before families are notified.