Malaysia ‘hopeful’ to find MH370 a year after crash

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (2nd UPDATE) – Malaysia’s prime minister said Sunday, March 8, his nation remains committed to the so-far fruitless hunt for flight MH370 exactly one year after it went missing, and is hopeful the plane will be found.

Najib Razak’s comments came as Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the search in the southern Indian Ocean, which is being led by his country, could be widened if the current probe is unsuccessful.

“Together with our international partners, we have followed the little evidence that exists. Malaysia remains committed to the search, and hopeful that MH370 will be found,” Najib Razak said in a statement to mark the anniversary of the plane’s disappearance.

The year-long hunt in the deep ocean at least 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) off Australia’s west coast where the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 is believed to have crashed has so far yielded no sign of the plane.

An independent team of investigators tasked with probing the mystery is to release an interim report on its findings on Sunday at 3 pm local time (0700 GMT) in Kuala Lumpur, the government said.

It remains unclear whether it will contain any new information on what might have caused the aircraft to disappear after veering from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route on March 8 of last year with 239 passengers and crew aboard.

“No words can describe the pain the families of those on board are going through,” Najib said, calling the plane’s disappearance “without precedent”. 

“The lack of answers and definitive proof – such as aircraft wreckage – has made this more difficult to bear.”

Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya told relatives of the crew on the flight that the carrier’s management shares their ongoing grief.

“We remain hopeful that the search will help us find the answers that we all seek,” Ahmad Jauhari told staff at a remembrance ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.

“Until then, as a family, we will continue to support to each other.”

Further search: Australian PM

Investigators still lack any trace of the jet, including the “black box” data recorders considered most likely to yield clues.

More than 40 percent of a designated 60,000-square-kilometer (23,000-square-mile) zone believed to be the most likely location of the crash site has been scanned for wreckage using sophisticated sonar, but nothing related to MH370 has been found.

The priority search is due to conclude in May, but Abbott said Sunday it could be extended further “as long as there are reasonable leads” as the next of kin needed answers.

“If we don’t succeed in this search, there is another search that we intend to make,” the Australian leader said in Sydney.

“We’ve got 60,000 square kilometers (23,000-square-mile) that is the subject of this search. If that’s unsuccessful, there’s another 60,000 square kilometers that we intend to search and, as I said, we are reasonably confident of finding the plane.”

Abbott did not give further details about where the proposed new probe would take place. 

The independent investigative team was set up in the weeks after the plane’s disappearance under International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requirements.

Its report is considered only an “interim” one due to the lack of hard evidence.

Malaysia’s Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told Agence France-Presse in an interview on Saturday, March 7, that the hunt for MH370 would be sent “back to the drawing board” if the current search zone comes up empty.

He said that meant satellite and other data used to determine the suspected crash region would have to be re-examined, but he would not specify what could happen next.

Many next of kin were deeply critical of Malaysia’s initial response to the crisis, saying that opportunities to intercept or track the plane were lost. – Rappler.com