Search Among The Sunflowers

As debris from MH17 smouldered across the fields of eastern Ukraine, families and next of kin were thrust into a new reality – one of profound loss and unimaginable grief. While the world around them moved forward, their lives had been forever altered and they wanted someone held responsible. Justice would be an arduous 8-and-a-half-year journey and the AFP would not let them go through it alone. The AFP’s Family Investigative Liaison Officers (FILOs) would become a lifeline for grieving Australian families, providing support and a single point of truth against a background of complex misinformation.

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With the threat of conflict resuming at any moment, AFP investigators were racing against time to recover the last remaining MH17 victims and any clues that would bring them closer to the truth of exactly what happened... and who was responsible. At the crash site, investigators uncovered a bow-tie-shaped fragment of what appeared to be shrapnel, embedded in the plane’s fuselage. It would be a critical discovery in the MH17 investigation.

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Brisbane retirees Howard and Susan Horder were on their way home after a dream European holiday. They were among the 38 people who called Australia home on board MH17 when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine. The devastation of that day has never left the Horder family. While they and other heartbroken next of kin were desperate to bring their loved ones home, AFP officers were working quickly on the ground in Ukraine to recover bodies from the volatile crash site and move them to a safe location. Only then could DVI experts begin the painstaking processes of identification and repatriation.

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In the days after MH17 came down, unarmed AFP officers were deployed into an active conflict zone patrolled by Russia-backed separatists. Their mission involved recovering the remains of the MH17 victims. What confronted them was a horrifying scene - bodies, personal belongings and children’s toys lay alongside smoking debris as far as the eye could see. As evidence began to be uncovered, the downing of MH17 was looking more like a criminal act... and the crash site had just become the world’s biggest crime scene.

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It’s the 17th of July 2014 and Sydney man Jack O’Brien races through Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, desperate not to miss his flight home – Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. A few hours later, Jack’s flight would break apart in mid-air above eastern Ukraine and plunge into a sea of sunflowers, killing all 298 people aboard. Jack would never make it home. As the heart-wrenching news reached Jack’s family and the relatives of other victims, Australian officials embarked on an urgent mission to find the truth of what happened. It would become one of the most complex and dangerous international policing missions of our time.

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The story of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is one of profound tragedy and loss. It is also a story of unwavering dedication to seeking truth, justice and accountability.

The Attorney General of Australia, the Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP, pays tribute to those whose unimaginable stories have inspired this 5-part podcast series. In particular, those who travelled to Ukraine and the Netherlands in 2014 to investigate the MH17 crash and recover the remains of the victims, and those who tirelessly worked on investigations and advocated for absolute accountability in the years since. This podcast is testament to all those remarkable people.

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17 July 2014. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, is shot down by a surface-to-air missile in the skies above Eastern Ukraine. 298 people were on board, including 38 people who called Australia home. None survived.

Recovering and identifying victim remains would quickly become an unprecedented operation for the Australian Federal Police and their international counterparts. It would also become a complex mission to find the truth about what happened to MH17 and pursue justice for the families left behind.

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