KUALA LUMPUR, November 12 – The government has not fixed the date to declare the status of the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 which is still missing since eight months ago.
Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi said this was because the government was still negotiating with the government of China in making a declaration whether the aircraft was missing or otherwise.
“The firm cooperation of the two governments continues. In fact, the search is still on until today,” he said when winding up the debate on the Supply Bill 2015 at the committee level for the Transport Ministry in the Dewan Rakyat, here, Tuesday.
MAS’ commercial director, Hugh Dunleavy recently was quoted as saying that the company was waiting for the MH370 flight to be officially declared as missing so that compensation could be paid out to the passengers’ next of kin.
Commenting on the matter, MAS in a statement yesterday said it was only a personal opinion and any action would be based on the advice of the technical team responsible for the search operation.
Ab Aziz said the investigation on the mysterious disappearance of the aircraft was on-going and all developments would be announced when the investigators found any new indicator and information.
MH370 with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board was on its way to Beijing, China from Kuala Lumpur when it disappeared from radar screens about an hour after departing from the KL International Airport at 12.41am on March 8.
The search for the missing plane is being conducted in the southern Indian Ocean.
On another development, Ab Aziz said the Road Transport Department director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad had used the wrong words when making a statement that the department targeted 5,000 people dead by 2020 on the road.
“The director-general had used the wrong words. Should have used ‘5,000 fatal road accidents expected’ and not ‘targeted 5,000 people dead,” he said when asked to clarify the statement which had gone viral on the social media.
– BERNAMA
