The House of Representatives is positive about the idea of housing the wreckage of flight MH17 in a memorial center. The wreckage is currently still stored in Gilze-Rijen. Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Foreign Affairs announced that he is looking at the proposal from the MH17 aviation disaster foundation with an “open attitude”.
“I think that would be nice to watch,” said Anne Kuik of the CDA on Wednesday during a debate. D66, VVD, PvdA, GroenLinks and PVV also support the idea. According to Piet Ploeg of Stichting Vliegramp MH17, such a memorial center could be built near the National Monument in Vijfhuizen, North Holland.
After the wreckage was transferred to the Netherlands at the end of 2014, it has been stored in Gilze-Rijen. According to Ploeg, the wreck means a lot to the relatives. “It is the only place that comes close to the death of their loved ones. We cannot go to the crash site. So the wreckage is very precious to many relatives.”
The disaster killed all 298 people on July 17, 2014, including 196 Dutch people. 50 of them came from Brabant.