(15 Mar 2012) 1. Wide exterior of Belgian Government building, with journalists waiting
2. Mid of security officers
3. Wide of Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo arriving at news conference
4. Cutaway of cameraman
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Elio Di Rupo, Belgian Prime Minister:
"We did, with the agreement of the Swiss authorities, schedule a first repatriation of the identified bodies by the end of the day (Thursday), and the parents of the identified persons as well as the parents who want to, can come back via Geneva on a National Defence Airbus. A second repatriation is scheduled tomorrow (Friday), probably tomorrow afternoon or the end of afternoon, it depends on the speed at which we can do the identifications."
6. Wide of news conference
7. Cutaway of journalist
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Elio Di Rupo, Belgian Prime Minister:
"The government has decided that tomorrow the 16th of March will be a national day of mourning and that at 11 (am) everywhere in the country a minute of silence will be respected in memory of the victims."
9. Di Rupo leaving news conference
STORYLINE
The first plane carrying the bodies of victims of Tuesday night's bus crash in the Swiss Alps is expected to arrive in Belgium on Thursday, Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo told a news conference in Brussels.
Twenty-one Belgians were among the 28 people killed when the tourist bus slammed head-on into a concrete wall inside the Tunnel de Geronde near the Swiss town of Sierre.
A second repatriation flight is scheduled for Friday, depending "on the speed at which we can do the identifications," Di Rupo said.
He also declared Friday a national day of mourning in memory of the 22 children and six adults who died.
Investigations are underway to determine how a modern bus with two rested drivers and a tunnel considered safe could result in one of the deadliest highway crashes in Swiss history.
A prosecutor for the Swiss state of Valais told a news conference on Wednesday that officials are looking at three possible causes: a technical problem with the bus, a health problem with the driver or human error.
Swiss and Belgian media reported on Thursday that survivors of the crash claimed the driver had reached to change a disc on the onboard entertainment system shortly before the crash.
It was unclear whether that could have contributed to the crash, and neither police nor prosecutors could immediately be reached for comment on the report.
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