MH370: Azharuddin unfazed by criticisms

Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman is unfazed over criticisms levelled against him when dealing with the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 aircraft which vanished on March 8, last year.

"Even now, I'm being criticised. I have still not changed from March 8, last year until now," he said when asked how he took the criticisms at his media briefing, in conjunction with the first year anniversary of the missing aircraft here on Friday.

Azharuddin has been the target of criticisms, especially at the initial stage of the aircraft's disappearance, infuriated by confusing and contradictory statements at daily press briefing where he was one of the key spokesmen for the incident.

Flight MH370, on which were 227 passengers and 12 crew went missing from the radar screen while enroute from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, about an hour after it departed from the KL International Airport on March 8. It was scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 6.30am on the same day.

Recalling the first few weeks when the aircraft went missing, Azharuddin said the team was "very frantically searching" for the aircraft.

"The scenario then (early stage) is different today. We were talking to almost everybody, including the Inmarsat to gather information.

"Every information that we received had to be verified and we had to inform the media and the next-of-kin," he said.