The Malaysian Airways help desk at Schiphol airport's terminal three remained emphatically closed on Friday morning, barricaded shut with additional movable walls. Only a bunch of white flowers behind the container hinted at the tragedy that has befallen Holland.
At 12:15pm on Thursday, Malaysian Airways flight MH17 departed from this same gate carrying 298 people – according to the latest information, 189 of them were Dutch. None of them are thought of have survived the incident over Ukraine.
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, released a statement on Tuesday night, saying: "I am deeply shocked by the tragic news about the crash of flight MH17 of Malaysian Airlines from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over Ukrainian territory. A lot is still unclear about the facts, circumstances and passengers."
The Dutch king, Willem-Alexander, also expressed his condolences to the relatives of the victims, saying he was "deeply shocked" by the news. "We offer our deepest sympathy to the families, friends and colleagues of the victims and to those who are still uncertain if their loved ones were on board the plane." The traditional royal photo call to mark the start of the summer holidays on Friday was cancelled.
Friday's front page of de Volkskrant newspaper showed a picture of the wreckage at the crash site, underneath the headline: "One of the worst air disasters in Dutch history."
Yet on Friday morning at 8am, passengers were queuing up to check into another Malaysian Airways flight bound for Kuala Lumpur. One couple in their 20s, who didn't want to give their names, said they felt "sad" about what had happened, and admitted they were a little bit scared about boarding their flight. But they were determined not to give up on their holiday, a trip around Indonesia and Sumatra.
Erik Elsenaar, an IT consultant waiting at Schiphol for his midday flight to Kuala Lumpur, told the Guardian he was feeling very calm: "This is something that never, never happens, and it's unlikely to happen again. It is a tragedy, but it doesn't look like the attack was either directed at Holland or Malaysia Airways. You can see here that they've already doubled the security at check-in. They will probably triple the checks for bombs. It's definitely safer to travel now than it was to travel the day before yesterday."
Elsenaar said Malaysian Airways staff hadn't mentioned the accident to him during check-in. "I expect this will add an hour extra to my flight, but that's it."
All across Amsterdam, the Dutch flag was hanging at half mast. Floor Reukers and Alex van den Akker, two students having a cigarette break by one of the canals, said they were shocked because everyone seemed to know someone who had recently been on the same flight route or was planning to fly that way soon. "My brother is flying to Kuala Lumpur in a few days," said Reukers, "and a friend of mine flew the same way last week."
Asked how they felt the Dutch government should react to the tragedy, Van den Akker said: "What happened was awful, and we are all thinking of the victims. But we are not going to call for the government to go and catch the perpetrators or go to war. We are not America."
