DEBRIS FOUND ON REUNION ISLAND FROM MALAYSIAN AIRPLANE MH370
PETALING JAYA, Malaysia - The debris of a plane found on
Reunion Island last week has been confirmed to be part of the MH370 aircraft
which disappeared on March 8 last year.
This was announced by the Prime Minister Najib Razak during
a media conference at the Putra World Trade Centre at 1.50am here today.
“Today, 515 days since the plane disappeared, it is with a
heavy heart that I must tell you that an international team of experts have
conclusively confirmed that the aircraft debris found on Reunion Island is indeed
from MH370,” said Najib.
“This is a remote, inhospitable and dangerous area, and on behalf
of Malaysia I would like to thank the many nations, organisations and
individuals who have participated in the search.”
- Last week, on July 29, French authorities announced that part of an aircraft wing had been found on Reunion, the French island in the Indian Ocean.
- On March 8, 2014, flight MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing carrying 239 passengers and crew disappeared from the radar.
- “The days, weeks and months that followed have been a period of torment for the families of those on board. The plane’s disappearance was without precedent.
- “At every stage, we followed the tiny amount of evidence that existed. But, despite the efforts of 26 nations and the largest search in aviation history, from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean, the plane could not be located,” Najib said.
- He added, as of now, none of the investigations that have been conducted by aviation experts could provide an answer as to why the ill-fated flight veered off course.
- Najib also vowed that the Malaysian government would do everything within their means to find out the truth about what happened to MH370.
- “While the plane’s disappearance remains a mystery, we share the pain of those who could find no comfort.
The burden and uncertainty faced by the families during
this time has been difficult. It is my hope that with this confirmation,
however tragic and painful, it will at least bring certainty to the families
and loved ones of the 239 people on board MH370. We mourn with you, as a nation, Najib said.
After the tragic incident on March 8 last year, Najib
announced that MH370 had tragically ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
Source: – AFP
MALAYSIA DECLARES MH370 AN ACCIDENT?
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia has declared the disappearance of
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 an "accident", its Department of Civil
Aviation (DCA) said on Thursday.The Boeing 777 aircraft disappeared on March 8 last year, carrying 239 passengers and crew shortly after taking off from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing.
"We officially declare Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
an accident ... and that all 239 of the passengers and crew onboard MH370 are
presumed to have lost their lives," DCA director-general Azharuddin Abdul
Rahman said in a statement."It is therefore, with the heaviest heart and deepest sorrow that, on behalf of the government of Malaysia, we officially declare Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an accident," Azharuddin said in a televised announcement.
The announcement is in accordance with standards of annexes 12 and 13 in the International Civil Aviation, said Azharuddin. It will allow families of the passengers to obtain assistance through compensation, he said.
Months of searches have failed to turn up any trace.
Sources: Reuters, Agency
FAMILIES FURIOUS OVER THE ‘LOST’ REPORT OF MH370 BY MALAYSIAN AIRLINES
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - - Relatives of MH370 passengers have criticised
beleaguered Malaysia Airlines after an official reportedly said authorities
would set a date to announce the plane "lost", with an industry
source saying such a declaration would see the search called off.Both Malaysia Airlines and officials in Australia - which is leading the search for the missing jet far off its western coast - have denied the reported comments by the carrier's commercial director Hugh Dunleavy.
But Voice370, an association of MH370 victims' relatives,
said in a statement late Monday that it was "bewildered" by the
report last week."Such unilateral declaration brings intense agony and confusions to family members and makes us lose faith in the search effort," it said.
A New Zealand Herald article, citing Dunleavy, said authorities were working to set a date - likely by the end of the year - to formally announce the loss of the Boeing 777, which vanished off radars on March 8 with 239 people aboard.
- "We don't have a final date but once we've had an official loss recorded we can work with the next of kin on the full compensation payments for those families," he was quoted as saying.
- An industry source familiar with the MH370 saga said once the plane is declared lost, all search efforts will be stopped.
- "The talk has been that the search has been futile so far and it's unlikely to bring anything," he said.
- In a statement on Monday, Malaysia Airlines distanced itself from Dunleavy's comments, saying it was his personal opinion and "ongoing search and recovery operations will remain and will not be discontinued".
- It said any information regarding MH370 will only be communicated by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) in Australia.
- Officials at the JACC said yesterday that Dunleavy's comments were "greatly disturbing for the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew on board MH370", reiterating Australia's commitment to the search.
- MH370 inexplicably disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in what remains one of history's great aviation mysteries.
Australia has been spearheading the hunt for the plane,
which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean off western
Australia.Some next-of-kin bitterly accuse the Malaysian government and airline of a bungled response and cover-up, charges that they have strenuously denied.
A Malaysian family last month sued the government and the airline for negligence in what is believed to be the first lawsuit filed over the disaster.
Source: AFP
MALAYSIAN AIRLINES CLOSES MH370 ASSISTANCE CENTERS IN CHINA
Anguished relatives of passengers on board Malaysia Airlines (MAS)
flight MH370 wailed and yelled in a Beijing hotel yesterday when told by
the airline that it was closing its family assistance centers which had
been their gathering point since the aircraft vanished, reported CNN.
The closure of the assistance centres meant that the families would now
have to go home and there would no longer be mass daily briefings at
the Lido Hotel.
"What can we do?" a relative yelled, as others kneeled in front of
police who had assembled in the hotel briefing room to keep order, the
CNN report said.
"Who will find our family members?" another shouted.
"Who will find our family members?" another shouted.
About two-thirds of the 239 people on board flight MH370 were Chinese citizens.
MAS had said in a statement yesterday that it would close all its family assistance centers worldwide by May 7.
"Malaysia Airlines will keep in close touch with the families on news updates through telephone calls, messages, the Internet, and face-to-face meetings.
"With the support of the Malaysian government, the airline’s family support centers will be established in Kuala Lumpur and in Beijing.
Source: The Malaysian Insider...More... MAS had said in a statement yesterday that it would close all its family assistance centers worldwide by May 7.
"Malaysia Airlines will keep in close touch with the families on news updates through telephone calls, messages, the Internet, and face-to-face meetings.
"With the support of the Malaysian government, the airline’s family support centers will be established in Kuala Lumpur and in Beijing.
The
detailed plan of follow-up support and services will be informed in
person to the families," the statement by MAS group chief executive
officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya(photo) had said.
COST PRESSURES MOUNT AS MH370 SEARCH DRAG ON
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - With the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
entering a new, much longer phase, the countries involved must decide how much
they are prepared to spend on the operation and what they stand to lose if they
hold back.
But despite US President Barack Obama publicly promising to
commit more assets, the United States appears keen to begin 
passing on the
costs of providing sophisticated sonar equipment that will form the backbone of
the expanded hunt.
passing on the
costs of providing sophisticated sonar equipment that will form the backbone of
the expanded hunt.
That means Australia, China and Malaysia – the countries
most closely involved in the operation – look set to bear the financial and
logistical burden of a potentially lengthy and expensive search.
"We're already at tens of millions. Is it worth
hundreds of millions?" a senior US defence official told Reuters last
week. "I don't know. That's for them to decide."
- He made it clear that Washington was intent on spending less from now on, making it the first major donor country to scale back its financial commitment to the search.
- "We're not going to pay to perpetually use the equipment on an indefinite basis. Basically from here on out – starting next week or so – they need to pick up the contract," he said.
- At least US$44 million (RM143.55 million) was spent on the deployment of military ships and aircraft in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea in the first month of the search, about the same as was spent on the whole underwater search for Air France's flight AF447, which crashed into the Mid-Atlantic in 2009.
Source: The Malaysian Insider...More...
MISSING MH370: MAS STAFF DETAINED BY ANGRY RELATIVES IN CHINA
Angry relatives of people missing on Malaysia Airline flight MH370
held some members of the carrier's staff for more than 10 hours in a
hotel in Beijing, the airline said today.
The jetliner vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board while on a
flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Many of the passengers were from
China and their relatives have grown increasingly frustrated with the
failure of a multinational search to find any trace of the plane.
More than 200 family members held 10 Malaysian Airline staff after a
briefing at a Beijing hotel, only releasing them early today, the
airline said.
"Malaysia Airlines confirms that its staff were held at the Lido Hotel
ballroom in Beijing by the family members of MH370 as the families
expressed dissatisfaction in obtaining details of the missing aircraft,"
the airline said.
In another incident, a Chinese family member attacked a Malaysian
Airline's security supervisor on duty at same hotel on Tuesday, the
airline said.
The member of staff sustained a light injury and the airline had filed a police report, it added.
The search for missing airliner is likely to drag on for years, a
senior US defence official said earlier today, as an underwater search
for any trace of the plane's wreckage off west Australia appeared to
have failed.
Source: TMI
UNDERSEA ROBOT HUNTS FOR MALAYSIAN MH370 MISSING PLANE
The search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 goes underwater as the robot submersible Bluefin 21 is used for the first time as officials announce the fresh sighting of an oil slick.
The head of the Australian agency supervising the hunt for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane has confirmed that an autonomous underwater vehicle would be deployed, moving the search underwater after nearly six weeks of fruitless searching.
An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), called Bluefin-21, will help search for the wreckage, creating a three-dimensional map of the ocean floor, said search co-ordinator Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston.
The AUV will take two hours to reach the bottom of the ocean, where it will operate for 16 hours before returning to the surface.
It takes a further four hours to download and analyse the data collected, he said.
He cautioned however that hopes must not be raised as the Bluefin-21 is deployed.
Source: The Telegraph
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