The journey of bringing home remains of Malaysian MH17 victims begins

The special flight by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) bringing home the remains of 20 Malaysian victims of the ill-fated Flight MH17 is scheduled to depart Schipol International Airport at 2pm local time (8pm Malaysian time) to be buried here.

The special flight, dubbed ‘Mike Papa Sierra’, is expected to arrive at the KL International Airport (KLIA) at 10am tomorrow and will be received in full military honour.

On Wednesday, the remains were transported from the Monuta Ineeme Morgue, S-Gravanhage to another morgue near the Schipol airport to prepare for their flight home to Malaysia.

“The transporting process was to ease the process of uploading of the caskets,” Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said, as reported by Bernama.

The remains of 17 victims would be place in caskets while the remains of the other three, which have been cremated, were in urns.

In conjunction with the National Day of Mourning held nationwide tomorrow, flags would be flown at half-mast while all Malaysian citizens have been advised to don dark clothing as a show of respect.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the remains of eight more Malaysian victims had been identified but were still in Amsterdam awaiting certain procedures and would be brought to Malaysia soon in batches.