The Malaysian government has officially declared that all 239 passengers and crew on board the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 jet have lost their lives.
In a highly-anticipated televised statement — just hours after cancelling a press conference earlier today — Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman announced that the declaration was made in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Chicago Convention.
“After 327 days and based on all available data as well as circumstances mentioned earlier, survivability in the defined area is highly unlikely,” Azharuddin said in a 20-minute statement over RTM 1.
“It is therefore, with the heaviest heart and deepest sorrow that, on behalf of the Government of Malaysia, we officially declare Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an accident in accordance with the Standards of Annexes 12 and 13 to the Chicago Convention and that all 239 of the passengers and crew onboard MH370 are presumed to have lost their lives.”
He said the last known position of the Boeing-777 jet was in the middle of the Indian Ocean and that this was a ‘remote location, far from any possible landing site’.
“It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” he said.
Earlier this week, the government announced that it would release an interim report on March 7. March 8 will mark one year since the Beijing-bound aircraft departed from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and later lost contact with air traffic control, sparking off one of the greatest aviation mysteries in the world.
