SEPANG: IT was 9.45am at the Bunga Raya Complex, Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The skies were clear, the air balmy and tinged with poignancy and sadness.
The faces of the family members of 20 of the people who died aboard Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 were tear-stained as they waited for the arrival of caskets and urns bearing the remains of their loved ones.
“Rain or shine, nothing will stop us from honouring the dead and their families,” Defence Ministry public affairs head Lieutenant-Colonel Bakhtiar Nur Md Allias told a press conference earlier.
At 9.55am, the whirring of a MAS Boeing 747’s engines created a din on the tarmac, followed by an instant hush among those present at the ceremony to receive and honour the remains of 20 Malaysian victims.
Flight MH6129 landed after an 11-hour journey from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, commanded by a team of senior pilots led by Captain Datuk Missman Leham.
The aircraft taxied towards the complex before stopping in front of 20 white hearses.
Soldiers from the army’s 12th Brigade moved in, forming markers and rows of pall-bearers facing the Boeing 747’s bulbous nose, as the ceremony steeped in military tradition commenced — the first in the country’s history where civilians were accorded such honours.
Each casket and urn was draped with the Jalur Gemilang, and gently lowered by a motorised platform from the belly of the chartered MAS flight. Six soldiers waiting below the aircraft lifted each of the caskets onto the shoulders of eight military pall-bearers.
The remains of Mastura Mustafa, the leading stewardess of MH17, were the first to be carried out. Muffled sobs punctuated the silence as the pall-bearers, bearing the weight of a grieving nation, carried her casket towards a waiting hearse.
All of the soldiers donned the Malaysian army’s ceremonial dress — white baju melayu, olive green samping and songkok.
Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah, dressed in a black baju melayu, watched solemnly as each of the victims was placed in his or her hearse.
Several members of parliament were seen sending updates of the ceremony via their social media accounts as top police and army officers looked straight ahead.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, appeared sorrowful as the last of 20 hearses was closed. The master of ceremonies then called for the nation to rise and observe a minute of silence at 10.54am.
“Let us all stand to honour our sisters and brothers by reciting Al-Fatihah, or for the non-Muslims, a prayer according to your respective faiths.”
The convoy of hearses drove past the rows of bereaved families and dignitaries, who received a silent salute from the co-drivers of the hearses.
As the last of the hearses passed, marking the end of the ceremony, Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Haminah departed the complex. The king headed for Putra Mosque in Putrajaya, where he joined the congregation to perform solat jenazah (prayers for the dead).
Accompanied by military police outriders, 13 hearses carrying the remains of those who were to be buried in the Klang Valley, Seremban and Putrajaya headed for the Malaysia Airports Training Centre, where they were joined by the next of kin before heading to their respective hometowns.
The remains of seven other victims were flown out of KLIA on two Royal Malaysian Air Force Hercules C-130 aircraft and three EC725 helicopters at 11.30am.
Najib and Muhyiddin later met a group of MAS technical and cabin crew, who were there to pay their last respects.