Joep Lang News Today

To focus on the good memories. >> nick himself was an inspirational hero to so many people, a real story teller and natural leader, and my memories have been very fond. hes been a great role model for me. >> reporter: all told, 298 lives lost and grief felt around the world. frederik pleitgen, cnn. >> and we will continue to remember the victims aboard flight 17 and, of course, their families during this difficult time here on cnn. im isha sesay. >> im john vause. youre watching cnn newsroom. we...

I havent seen so far, isha, any family members at the airport itself. >> all right. this must be a country in shock. we just saw your report on some of the victims there from the netherlands, 189 of those passengers on flight 17 were dutch nationals. just give us a sense of the broader mood there in the country at present. >> reporter: you know, yesterday we were driving around the country, what really struck me, isha, not just the diversity of the passengers is that were onboard mh17, but just ...

Emotions. a friend of one of the flight attendants says theyd only spoken days ago. >> she just told me that she didnt have a transport and then she says if it is all right for you to come and pick me up. i said, why not, i just sent her to the airport and i just said ill wait for you come back, and never come back. >> reporter: 25-year-old doctoral student at indiana university and a member of the womens rowing team. meanwhile, a daughter in australia fought back tears, remembering her parents....

Hours later, mh17 disappeared from radar and crashed in eastern ukraine. a photograph of them now sits outside her flower shop. >> its just lovely girl. >> reporter: going to miss her? >> yes, we all. >> reporter: the irony not lost on many here that they are now laying flowers at the shop where they used to buy them. in nearby rodderdam, similar scene outside the chinese restaurant asian glories. he tells me of the moment he learned three family members werent coming home. when you came to that...

One small example of his work, he argued if coca-cola could get refrigerated beverages to places all over africa, we should be able to do the same with refrigerated hiv medications. >> people in his lab and on the society as a whole, its an incredible loss. were all just bracing ourselves to arrive and find out who else may have been on that flight, its just unbelievable. its not really real yet. >> reporter: the world health organization tells cnn the spokesman glen thomas was on the flight. he...

Jenny and her husband. he says their 30-year-old son is struggling to cope. >> reporter: this restaurant in about 15, 20 years, its a very good restaurant and the flowers, of course, all the comments on the internet, and always working for the son and for the business. this was their vacation. >> reporter: another family was also on vacation aboard flight mh17. upcoming deejay was on his way to vietnam. his close friend and fellow deejay says he could have been one of the greats. >> he was one o...

Level of being a human being on this planet. >> reporter: the florist, the restaurantuers, the deejay, some of the dutch passengers who were killed. this country mourns them all. >> well, at the airport in amsterdam, joining us now on the phone. erin, weve heard that in kuala lumpur, family members have been turning up at the airport there demanding answers. what have you been seeing and hearing there in amsterdam at the airport? >> reporter: well, theres a small makeshift memorial just outside ...

Government says they dont have them. the international monitor says they dont have them. the indication appears to be the rebels still have those black boxes and they are vital to the investigation. so all of these things are on the agenda for the monitors today, but its not clear yet if they are going to get what they want and they certainly dont have the means, if you will, to pressure the pro-russian rebels to get access. they are not armed. they are there with flat jackets alone, working onl...

>> reporter: a soft plea, daddy, dont leave me. hes only three. hes never picked a fight in his life, so he cant understand why hes being punished. just go ahead and tell the world my son was firing rockets in tel aviv or jerusalem, his father says, words loaded with irony and anger. an israeli missile slammed into their home in eastern gaza just before dawn. cnn teams saw that neighborhood under heavy bombardment as israel launched its ground invasion. this was the gaza skyline through the nigh...

There will be opportunities to remember those who were lost on the plane. >> and more than half of the 298 people onboard malaysia airlines flight 17 were from the netherlands. the flight originated in amsterdam and people there have been leaving flowers and other momentos at the airport and people from at least nine different countries were onboard that plane, including families heading to holiday in bali and as you just heard, prominent aids researchers heading off to an international conferen...