MH17 forensic expert David Ranson from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine identified Ned Kelly

A FORENSICS expert who helped identify Ned Kelly’s body is part of an international team investigating the MH17 crash.

A FORENSICS expert who helped identify Ned Kelly’s body is part of an international team investigating the MH17 crash.

David Ranson is a forensic pathologist and deputy director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM).

The Melbourne scientist will join other forensic experts in the Netherlands at the Corporal Van Oudheusden Barracks in Hilversum.

The town itself is in mourning after the loss of several families in the Malaysia Airlines crash in the Ukraine.

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Looking for answers ... Forensic pathologist David Ranson is with the MH17 forensics team.

Associate Professor Ranson will be accompanied by VIFM forensic dentists Jeremy Graham and Lyndal Smythe as well as technician Gemma Radford.

Australian and Dutch aircraft will take bodies from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv to the Eindhoven airport in the Netherlands.

Bodies arrive ... the train carrying the 280 bodies recovered from the downed Malaysian flight MH17 arrives at the Malyshev Plant, in the government-held Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Picture: Sergey Bobok

They will then be transported by road to the medical military base where the forensics team is based.

Some bodies are expected to be identified quickly while others could take weeks, Dutch authorities say.

Professor Ranson said the work will be similar to identifying victims of the Victorian bushfires or the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

Monitors on the ground ... from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and members of a forensic team inspect a refrigerator wagon containing the remains of victims from the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Picture: Bulent Kilic

Family members of many of the Australian victims have already provided DNA samples and other information to help with identification.

Professor Ranson was involved in the Ned Kelly project, which used a DNA sample from Kelly’s sister, Ellen’s great-grandson, to identify the body of the iconic bushranger.

Needs scouring ... the Grabovo main crash site of flight MH17 has been left deserted. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

The VIFM, described as a “turbocharged CSI”, is recognised as one of the world’s leading forensic medicine institutions.

The team has also been involved in the Bali bombings investigations, as well as the Black Saturday bushfires and the Asian tsunami disaster.

Originally published as MH17 forensic expert David Ranson from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine identified Ned Kelly