MH370 ruled an accident, paving way for compensation

KUALA LUMPUR — The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 has been declared an accident and its passengers presumed dead, Malaysian officials said yesterday, but they added that the search for the missing aircraft will continue and the declaration was made to allow families to proceed with compensation claims under international aviation conventions.

Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said in a statement that after 327 days and based on all available data received, survivability in the area of the crash is considered highly unlikely and all 239 passengers and crew on board are presumed to have lost their lives.

However, the search for the aircraft and investigations will continue, Mr Azharuddin reassured the families. The declaration was made by the DCA pursuant to the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Chicago Convention, allowing the family members of the passengers on board to proceed with their claims for damages.

“It is, nonetheless, important that families try to resume normal lives, or as normal a life as may be possible after this sudden loss. Without in any way intending to diminish the feelings of the families, it is hoped that this declaration will enable the families to obtain the assistance they need, in particular through the compensation process,” he said.

On Wednesday, Voice370 — the self-styled support group for families of those on board the missing plane — addressed rumours that the Malaysian authorities would make a major announcement about the flight, saying they will not accept such declarations from the government without physical evidence of the plane’s fate.

China too called on Malaysia to compensate families because most of the passengers on the plane were from China. “We call on the Malaysian side to honour the promise made when they declared the flight to have been lost and earnestly fulfil their compensation responsibilities,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement.

International investigators are looking into why the Boeing jet veered thousands of miles off course from its scheduled route before eventually plunging into the Indian Ocean. The search in the Indian Ocean is still going on and Malaysia is also conducting a criminal investigation, Mr Azharuddin said. “Both investigations are limited by the lack of physical evidence at this time, particularly the flight recorders,” he said.

On March 24 last year, Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed that the missing MAS jetliner “ended” its journey in the southern Indian Ocean, but stopped short of saying that the Boeing 777 aircraft had crashed.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported Deputy Transport Minister Aziz Kaprawi as saying the DCA will release an interim report on the investigation into the missing aircraft on March 7, a day before the first anniversary of the plane’s disappearance.

Retired Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who had led Australia’s response to MH370 and downed Flight MH17 in Ukraine, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday that it was possible that the missing plane might never be found in the deep waters of the vast ocean. AGENCIES