MH370: Malaysia working hard to deal with plane's disappearance, says IATA

The Malaysian authorities is working hard to deal with the disappearance of Flight MH370, both in consoling the relatives of those on board and providing accurate information for the masses, said the

International Air Transport Association (IATA).

"The Malaysian authorities are dealing with extreme situation and they are working hard to coordinate a group of experts from different countries to determine the causes and likely location of the aircraft," said Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Tyler.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the two-day IATA Ops Conference on Tuesday. The conference will end on Wednesday.

"Certainly, we have no right to criticise them (Malaysian authorities).

Let's focus on the most important thing, which is doing what we can to help those who suffer the loss of their loved ones," he said.

The search and rescue mission for the missing MH370 had entered its third week.

However, the mission has about a week from now to find the physical evidence, especially the 'black box' as signals from the recorder will fade soon.

Tyler said the ongoing search was being conducted at unprecendented scale and the efforts of those involved were no less than heroic.

He said there was no escaping reality of what has happened.

"The best way for all of us involved in aviation is to honour the memory of those on board is to learn from what happened to improve safety in the future," said Tyler.

Under 'normal' circumstances, he said, such incident could take a year or more to settle.

"In this case, given the difficult area in which the aircraft is lost, it will surely be a long journey before we can draw any certain conclusions on mitigation," he said.