KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — There will be no closure yet for the grieving families of those aboard MH370 until the plane is found, Putrajaya said today, despite concluding earlier that the jetliner had crashed into the vast Indian Ocean, killing all 239 passengers and crew members.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, when addressing Parliament today, pointed out the Malaysian government had only said that the flight had headed towards the southern corridor but had not given up efforts to hunt for plane wreckage.

The government, he said, is still aware that there has still been no sighting of the aircraft yet since its disappearance 18 days ago.

“Indeed there is no closure now. We have only stated that the incident was directed towards the southern corridor,” Hishammuddin said in Parliament here.

“The focus today is to make sure the debris which were detected by the different satellites are objects from MH370. Even when that has been ascertained, we need to find the black box.”

Hishammuddin added that he will meet with the US Pacific Command tonight, which is based in the region, to discuss the third phase of the operations.

The minister also revealed that internal audits on his ministry’s and the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s (RMAF) handling of the crisis will be conducted. Malaysia has been the target of widespread criticism from international communities, especially the families of MH370’s 153 Chinese passengers, on how it dealt with the tragedy.

The irate families staged a protest in front of the Malaysian embassy in Beijing today, labelling the Malaysian authorities “murderers” for allegedly delaying search and rescue efforts, which they insisted had led to the deaths of their loved ones.

Hishammuddin made his remarks today while debating the emergency motion on MH370 proposed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, before rushing to a briefing with representatives from the UK satellite firm Inmarsat ahead of the daily press conference.

Earlier today, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers criticised Putrajaya’s decision to announce last night that flight MH370 had “ended” in the Indian Ocean without physical evidence to back the conclusion, calling it a “closure without closure”.

Hishammuddin also claimed during his speech to the House that the concerted efforts of a number of countries and international agencies in the hunt for MH370 will set Malaysia as a shining example for global unity.

“If this motion can be agreed by all of us, it would be a precedent to the world. The world which today is divided, full of hatred, strife, killings,” the Sembrong MP said.

“But in the case of MH370, Malaysia can be an example in co-ordinating what we have done.”

The emergency motion today was passed unanimously, but with insistent calls for a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) or a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) from both political divide.

Hishammuddin, however, sidestepped the question when asked by reporters whether any of the two will be formed soon.

Najib revealed last night that analysis by UK commercial satellite firm Inmarsat and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch concluded that MH370 was flown toward the Indian Ocean after it deviated from its flight to Beijing.

MAS yesterday informed the families of passengers and crew that it must “assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived.”

But despite sightings of debris by satellites and planes searching the area, no conclusive evidence has yet to be recovered to indicate that the plane went down in the Indian Ocean.

MH370 and the 239 people on board disappeared less than an hour after the Beijing-bound flight left Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41am on March 8. The plane and its passengers remain missing despite over two weeks of intensive searching by a multinational effort.