GLASGOW, July 25 — It was a parade that won the admiration of many.

The Jalur Gemilang flown at half-mast, and six athletes and two officials donned Malaysia Airlines (MAS) cabin crew uniforms for the march-in, winning the hearts of those in the stadium and the millions watching from their homes.

As national cyclist Fatehah Mustapa, the flagbearer, led the national contingent at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games in Celtic Park on Wednesday, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaludin could only smile.

He was the man who engineered the need for the Malaysian team to pay tribute to the 298 lives lost in the Flight MH17 tragedy.

“By the time we learnt it was shot down, I knew we had to do something in Glasgow,” revealed Khairy.

“I thought about black armbands, which we also used, and felt it wasn’t enough. So I thought why not MAS crew uniforms?”

The initial plan was to get everyone in the parade to wear the uniform instead of the recently designed national jersey.

“But I thought it was not practical and may lose its touch. So I asked for the front row of athletes to wear them.

“Fatehah was supposed to wear it (the MAS uniform) too but we had limited sizes.”

Six athletes — Ju Pha Som Net (cycling), Surizan Awang Noh and Fatin Syafiqah Mohd Sukri (women’s hockey), Nur Fidrah Noh and Fairoz Abd Jabal (lawn bowls) and Farizal Ismail (rugby) — and two officials, rugby team manager Mohamad Fahmy Abdul Jalil and National Sports Council media officer Fahmi Omar wore the uniforms in honour of the victims.

The idea, however, did not go down too well with the secretariat, because Emirates is an official Games partner and official airline of the Queen’s baton relay.

“They (secretariat) were iffy about it but I told our chef-de-mission Datuk Ong Poh Eng to just do it.

The secretariat didn’t allow Fatehah to carry the flag at half-mast but the team brought scissors and tape and when they were handed the flag just outside the stadium before the march-in, they lowered it.”

“So a bit of work went on behind the scenes to get it all done but it came off well.”

Khairy said he appreciated MAS chairman Tan Sri Md Nor Yusof’s support. He lent the uniforms to the team.

The effort paid off as the emotional pictures went viral and were splashed on the front page of Malay Mail today — a fitting tribute by our national heroes to all those who perished on July 17.