Overwhelming trauma for Malaysia, says MERCY psychologist

Malaysia Airlines, and in fact, Malaysia as a nation, will undoubtedly have a tough time coming to terms with two major incidents that are the disappearance of flight MH370 and now, the MH17 crash, says psychologist Dr. Hariyati Shahrima Abdul Majid, of MERCY Malaysia.

Dr. Hariyati and her team are at KLIA to lend any form of counseling assistance they can to crew members and family members of the passengers on flight MH17.

"The trauma that we will face will definitely be intense. Not just because MH370 happened only months ago, but this time, the fate of MH17 and its passengers may be known almost immediately. And the emotions can be very overwhelming," she tells Astro AWANI.

Distraught family members have already started arriving at the departure hall of KLIA and are being ushered into the Anjung Tinjau area to await any information regarding their loved ones.

According to a MAS statement, they confirmed that Ukrainian ATC has informed them that they had lost contact with the aircraft at 14:15 (GMT) or 10:15pm Malaysian time.

The aircraft departed Amsterdam at 12:15pm, Thursday, local time and was expected to arrive at KLIA at 6:10am, Friday, Malaysian time.

The flight was carrying 280 passengers and 15 crew members.