MORE than 10 months since the ill-fated incident took place, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) yesterday officially declared the disappearance of flight MH370 an accident with no survivors.
The announcement will clear the way for MAS to proceed with the compensation process to the appointed next-of-kin of all MH370 passengers.
“We officially declare Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an accident in accordance with the Standards of Annexes 12 and 13 to the Chicago Convention and that all 239 of the passengers and crew onboard MH370 are presumed to have lost their lives,” said Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia, director-general, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, in a media statement.
“We have endeavoured and pursued every credible lead and reviewed all available data. Despite all these efforts over the last 327 days (as of January 28, 2015), the search unfortunately has yet to yield the location of the missing aircraft.”
On March 8, 2014, the Beijing-bound aircraft disappeared shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. A majority of the passengers were Chinese.
Searches in the following months have failed to turn up any trace of the missing plane and the fate of the Boeing 777-2H6ER jet remains unknown.
However, the search for MH370 remains a priority, MAS declared in its media statement.
