MH370: DCA chief reports 'good' meeting with Chinese relatives

Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman described as a "good one" his meeting today with 29 relatives of several Chinese passengers of a missing Malaysian airliner.

Azharuddin said that during the two-hour closed-door meeting, he and the representatives of other relevant agencies were able to answer all the questions raised by the family members.

The atmosphere was cordial and "we answered all the questions raised and the family members are satisfied so far," he told reporters after the meeting at the Bangi-Putrajaya Hotel here. Chinese nationals comprised 153 of the 227 passengers on board the missing Flight MH370 of Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

Asked what transpired at the meeting, Azharuddin said he could not reveal details but would issue a press statement later today.

The meeting was also attended by the Prime Minister's Special Envoy to China, Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting; China's Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang; the investigation team including representatives from the Royal Malaysian Air Force and the Royal Malaysian Police.

Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, left the KL International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea. It was to have landed in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.

A multinational search was mounted for the aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learned that the plane had veered off course, along two corridors - the northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand and the southern corridor, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Following an unprecedented type of analysis of satellite data, United Kingdom satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that Flight MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak then announced on March 24, seventeen days after the disappearance of Boeing 777-200 aircraft, that Flight MH370 "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".

The search, having entered its 26th day today, continues there.