MH17 day of mourning: White hearses arrive at KLIA

SEPANG: White hearses arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport's Bunga Raya Complex at 7.30am Friday as the nation prepares to receive the remains of 20 victims of the ill-fated flight MH17.

Media personnel, dressed in black or dull colours, converged at the site from as early as 5.45am in anticipation of the arrival of the special flight.

The flight is expected to touch down at 9.55am and the national mourning over the tragedy will be led by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah, who is scheduled to arrive at the complex at 9.45am.

Elsewhere at the airport, things were fairly quiet at the departure hall, with travellers and flight crew moving back and forth past check-in counters and through to immigration.

There was a small notice on the departure board announcing the location of a designated check-in counter to assist in the travel arrangements for travelling friends and family of the victims.

Malaysians have been urged to catch the live announcement for the exact time of the one minute of silence, which will be observed nationwide.

The ceremony will be broadcast live.

The special flight carrying the first set of remains left Amsterdam at 9.40pm Thursday.

The one minute of silence will be observed any time between 10.30am and 11.15am as a mark of respect for the victims.

Friday is the day of mourning for the Malaysian victims of MH17, which was shot down at 1415GMT (10.15pm Malaysian time) on July 17, some 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border. All 298 on board, including 43 Malaysians, were killed. MH17 was enroute from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.