700 human remains still to be identified from MH17

Crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Photo / AP

The family of a British student who was travelling to Australia when he died on MH17 has revealed there are still 700 fragments of human remains to be identified in the Netherlands.

Ben Pocock, 20, was en route to Perth to study at the University of Western Australia when Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine in mid-July.

Ben's father, Jeremy Pocock, says his family has been fortunate in a way because they've been able to recover quite a lot of his body.

"But we are one of those families that will almost certainly have to go through the process of dealing with further identifications," he told BBC TV earlier this morning NZ time.

"Only a few days ago we were informed that there are another 700 fragments of human tissue or bones yet to be identified and that's a process that's going to go until April or May.

"So there are a lot of families that are going to be receiving news of yet more identifications over the coming months and we may be one of them."

Authorities announced in early December that some fragments of all 38 Australians who died on MH17 had at last been formally identified.

There were 298 people on board the plane when it crashed.

Mr Pocock said four Dutch families were still waiting for loved ones to be identified and even where identification had been possible in some cases it was "minimal".

Many believe Russian-backed rebels shot down MH17 on July 17, but the exact cause remains unknown.

"The most important question for me and for my family - and all the other families I should imagine - is what happened and who did it?" Mr Pocock said.

"They must be held to account. That's it - that's the bottom line.

"(But) we have to be careful that we don't jump the gun and that we've got all the evidence and it's properly gathered."

The first sections of wreckage arrived in the Netherlands last week.

Australia's lead envoy in the investigation, Angus Houston, expects the wreckage will indicate what happened.

But the criminal investigation into who's responsible will be "exceedingly difficult", he cautioned last week.

Ben, an international business student, was heading to Australia for six months of study and travel.

Mr Pocock said his wife Louise would have liked a final coffee with Ben at Bristol airport but he was so excited he headed straight through to the gates.

"So we said our goodbyes, we had a hug and that was it," Mr Pocock said.

"We watched him go off into departures and ... we never saw him again."

Ben's younger sister, Emily, said grieving had been very strange because her brother was supposed to be in Australia for six months anyway.

"He wasn't supposed to be at home," she told the BBC.

"So we've had a hard time actually accepting what's happened."

- AAP