KUALA LUMPUR - The remains of two Malaysians killed on board Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 will arrive in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

Liow told a press conference at the Nirvana Memorial Centre here on Friday that the Malaysian government was waiting for authorities in the Netherlands to release the remains of another Malaysian, with further details to be announced on Saturday, The Star reported.

"The second group will arrive on Sunday, Aug 24. Hopefully three bodies will return then, but we can only announce more details on Saturday. Certain documentation needs to be completed," he said.

Forty-three Malaysians died when the Boeing 777 carrying 298 people was shot out of the sky on July 17 in a missile attack as it passed through the airspace of Ukraine above Donetsk, an eastern rebel-held region that saw months of fighting and more than 1,000 people killed.

On Friday morning, the bodies of 20 people who died in the attack was flown into Kuala Lumpur in the first such flight from Amsterdam.

Flags flew at half-mast and the nation observed a minute of silence.