Dutch Flags At Half Staff As Nation Mourns Crash

Relatives of passengers on flight MH17 board a bus to be transported to an unknown location to receive more information, at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, Thursday, July 17, 2014. Ukraine said a passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down Thursday as it flew over the country, and both the government and the pro-Russia separatists fighting in the region denied any responsibility for downing the plane.

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Flags flew are flying half-staff across the Netherlands as the country mourns at least 154 of its citizens killed when a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was shot down in eastern Ukraine.

Grieving relatives of the victims were gathering in a hotel at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport early Friday. Prime Minister Mark Rutte called for a fully independent investigation into the crash Thursday that killed 298 passengers and crew, the majority of them Dutch.

Rutte says "the next of kin of the 154 Dutch victims and all the other nationalities have the right to know what happened."