Construction begins on national MH17 memorial near Schiphol

The construction of the national MH17 memorial starts in Vijfhuizen, near Schiphol airport today. The memorial will consists of a forest of 298 trees, one for each person who died when the Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down, as well as the National Monument for the victims, NOS reports.

In the coming months a thousand trucks will bring ground to the site for the trees to be planted .The monument will be located in the middle of the trees. The monument is a 25 meter wide and 6 meter high steel wall containing the names of all 298 victims. The design, by artist Ronald Westerhuis, was selected by relatives of hte victims. The location was also chosen by the relatives.

The entire project will cost an estimated 1.5 million euros. According to the foundation, just over 220 thousand euros still need to be raised. The foundation Vliegramp MH17, which represents the victims' families, asked the ten larges employers in the Netherlands to make a contribution. The 298 trees were donated by a nursery in Noord-Brabant.

The monument will be unveiled on July 17th, 2017 - the three year anniversary of the disaster that killed 298 people, 196 of whom were Dutch. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine with a BUK missile system, fired from a pro-Russian separatist controlled area, according to the preliminary results of the Dutch Safety Board's investigation into what happened. The Safety Board also tracked the missile system's movement from Russia, to the field where it was fired and back to Russia.