Malaysia Airlines on Saturday released the full manifest of the 298 passengers and crew who perished on MH17, which was shot down Thursday over contested Ukrainian airspace.The Netherlands bore the brunt of the fatalities at 193 citizens, including one man who had dual U.S. citizenship. The 15 crew members were Malaysian, as were 28 passengers of the plane, which departed Amsterdam en route to Kuala Lumpur. Twenty-seven passengers were Australian, 12 were Indonesian and 10 were from the United Kingdom. In addition, four of the victims were German, four were Belgian, three were Filipino, one was Canadian and one was from New Zealand. Three infants were also among the dead.
Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that they were struggling to reach family members of the deceased. The airline is "still unable to identify many more family members," a statement said Saturday, appealing for next-of-kin to contact the airline. Meanwhile, the airline sent five "Go Team" members to the crash site — a war zone where treatment of the bodies and evidence has been embroiled in controversy. Eighty additional Malaysia airlines personnel were sent to Amsterdam to assist victims' families. An additional 127 government and media aids have also been deployed by the airline to Amsterdam and the crash site, the statement said.
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