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A convoy of eight trucks carrying wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster has arrived at a Dutch military base, as the official investigation into the cause of the plane's destruction continues.

Flight MH17 was shot down on July 17 over territory held by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew - most of them Dutch.

The Dutch-led international team investigating the disaster initially had difficulty accessing the disaster site due to clashes between rival forces.

The remains of six victims have yet to be found.

Now that the wreckage is at the Gilze-Rijen military base in the south of the Netherlands, investigators will photograph, scan and categorise the wreckage. They plan later to reassemble part of the Boeing 777 in a hangar, a procedure described by Tjibbe Joustra, Chairman of the Dutch safety board, as "laborious".

A final report on the downing of the jet is hoped to be ready by the middle of next year.

AP TELEVISION

Glize-Rijen, 9 December 2014

1. Close of police escort and trucks carrying the MH17 wreckage

2. Close of cameramen

3. Pan of trucks going into the military base

4. Close of people watching the trucks passing by

5. Wide pan of trucks coming into the base

6. Military guards watching the convoy as it is getting into the bas

7. People watching

8. Zoom out of trucks in the base with military guards in foreground

9. People watching

10. Military guards closing the base's gate

Two military aircraft carrying the bodies of some of the victims of the Malaysia Airlines crash left eastern Ukraine Wednesday, bringing some consolation to grieving relatives who still must wait for positive identifications and answers about who caused the disaster.

The Dutch government declared a day of national mourning as the country prepared for the arrival of the first bodies in the afternoon. The crash on Thursday killed all 298 people - most of them Dutch citizens - aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Two military transport planes, one Dutch and one Australian, departed at midday, heading for Eindhoven air base, to be met by Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and hundreds of relatives.

For days, Dutch police officers have been visiting the bereaved across the Netherlands - home to 193 of the dead - seeking information about distinguishing features and collecting DNA samples for use in identifying the remains.

That process will start Wednesday at a military barracks in the Dutch town of Hilversum, after the first planes carrying remains arrive in the Netherlands on a national day of mourning.

Meanwhile, people continued to pay their respects to the victims of the crash at a memorial at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

AP TELEVISION

Eindhoven military airbase

1. Close up of sign reading (Dutch) "Air Base Eindhoven"

2. Wide of vehicles driving in

3. Mid of sign reading (English) "Military facility"

4. TV truck outside gate

5. Police car

6. Truck carrying tank driving arriving at gate

Hilversum

7. Pan of Hilversum military base entrance

8. Close of military base sign

9. Military guards at entrance

10. Close of military sign

11. Wide of entrance

12. Guards and Dutch flag at half mast in background

13. Close of flag

14. Car entering base

Amsterdam

15. Various of make shift memorial at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport

16. People signing condolences books

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Kikert

"You see it on everybody, on the faces from everybody. They want their children back. That's important for the family and their friends, for everyone."

18. Close up of photo of a young man and woman

19. SOUNDBITE (English) Monique Den Veer

"It is very important, they are waiting for a couple of days and now they are coming it is a very important day for all the people here and all the people in the country, very important."

20. Close up of teddy bear

21. People looking at memorial