MH17: Malaysia National day of mourning on 22th August 2014

Malaysia today declared Aug 22 as its national day of mourning, as the country expects to receive the first batch of remains of Malaysian victims aboard flight MH17 on the same day.


The government said it would decide next week if the day will also be a public holiday, signalling the closure of public offices and financial markets.

Twenty-four of the 43 Malaysians on the flight have been identified by Dutch investigators almost a month after the jetliner carrying 298 people was downed on July 17, suspected to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile. 

"The names of the victims will be released on the day they are brought back to Malaysia," Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told reporters.


Authorities say that 15 of the 16 bodies to be brought back are those of Malaysians, while the last is a Dutch national, whose remains have been requested to be buried in Malaysia.

At least two Malaysian women on board are known to have been married to Dutch citizens.

Of the 43 Malaysians aboard the flight, 15 were crew and two were infants. The plane was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in a separatist-held area of Ukraine.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said 24 of the 43 Malaysians aboard the ill-fated flight have so far been identified by Dutch authorities in charge of forensics and DNA work in Amsterdam, including the 15 who will be flown home next week.

He noted that Dutch authorities have yet to release the remains of the nine others already identified, as they still need to be processed.

Those positively identified include 14 passengers and 10 crew members. The first two were identified on August 4, followed by 14 more on August 8. Another six were identified on August 12, plus two more yesterday.

A total of 283 passengers and 15 crew died when flight MH17 was shot out of the sky while flying over the troubled Crimean region in Eastern Ukraine on July 17.

The Malaysia Airlines plane, which was bound for Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam, was initially believed to have been downed by a surface-to-air missile at an altitude of 33,000 feet.

Malaysia today declared Aug 22 as its national day of mourning, as the country expects to receive the first batch of remains of Malaysian victims aboard flight MH17 on the same day