The Transport Ministry has established a special committee to investigate claims that an air traffic supervisor at the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre (KLATCC) was asleep when the individual was contacted four hours after the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370 flight disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014.

Its minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said that the claims were taken seriously.

“This is serious. We will investigate and take stern action if there is any misconduct,” said Liow.

He said this during an event held at the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College here this morning.

He also announce that a tripartite working group meeting would be held this month between China, Australia and Malaysia followed by a ministerial meeting in April.

The discussion would among others look into the search efforts and to ensure the next course of action.

An interim report on the disappearance of flight MH370 released by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on Sunday revealed that a phone call made between the Kuala Lumpur Air Traffic Control Centre and the MAS operation room found that the officer involved was asleep after the flight disappeared from radar.

By that time, the air traffic control centre in Ho Chi Minh had confirmed that it could not trace the flight after the Vietnamese civil aviation tried to contact the flight for 20 minutes.

The MAS operation room had asked the Kuala Lumpur control room if it managed to hand over the responsibility for the Beijing-bound flight to Vietnamese air traffic control, but the controller said he had just taken over duties and would have to wake up his supervisor in order to find out.

The interim report also among others stated that the investigation team had interviewed over 120 people and visited the various bodies involved.

The Beijing bound flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens with all 239 passengers and crew on board on March 8, 2014.