Witteveen and his family were on board the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 when it was shot down on 17 July 2014, killing all people on board. He was 62. The flight was meant to go from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but was shot down near Hrabove, Ukraine. Witteveen, his wife and daughter were among the 193 Dutch citizens killed. His son, Freek, was not on board.