The remains of eight British World War Two airmen have been buried with full military honours in Malaysia.
The eight crew of a Royal Air Force plane went missing after leaving Cocos Island in August 1945 to drop supplies to British soldiers in the finals days of Japanese occupation of what was then Malaya.
It was not until 1991 that wreckage of the plane was found in deep jungle by tribesmen. The remains of the airmen were not located until 2009.
In a sombre ceremony, the eight men were remembered and honoured by name as families and relatives paid their last respects. As an army bugler played, a guard of honour lowered their remains in a single coffin at a Commonwealth war grave in a suburb outside Kuala Lumpur.
"This is the final goodbye. I am pleased that after such a long time, there is a fitting conclusion to it all," said Geoffrey Dovey, 83, whose brother William Kenneth Dovey was 20 when he died.
The personal belongings of the victims that have been returned to their families, included a charm bracelet, dog tags and rings.
It was the second such military burial of its kind in Malaysia this year. The remains of nine British servicemen who died with three others in a plane crash in 1950 while fighting communist rebels in then-British-ruled Malaya were interred in the cemetery.
Both planes were found largely due to the Malaya Historical Group, a non-profit organisation that has carried out many expeditions to crash sites. Both expeditions were partly funded by the Malaysian army.
Shaharom Ahmad, a member of the wreck-hunting group, said it has also helped find the crash sites of another 13 World War Two aircraft, and hopes to get funds to unearth the remains of the victims. He believes there are another 50 such crash sites that have not been explored because of the difficult terrain.
"It is a labour of love" to help bring closure to families of those who died, said Mr Ahmad.
Sue Raftree, from the Ministry of Defence, said there were at least 20,000 British airmen missing worldwide during the wars.
