KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Malaysia is preparing to send a team of experts to Perth, Australia to assist in the search for the Malaysian Boeing 777-200ER aircraft in the treacherous waters in the southern Indian Ocean.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the team comprised experts from the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), Malaysia Airlines (MAS), the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF).

“This team will work closely with the Australian Rescue Co-ordination Centre to assist in the search operation,” he said in a statement here today.

Entering the 20th day, the search operation for the missing aircraft involving Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which involved nine planes and six ships in the southern Indian Ocean was suspended at 11.40am today due to bad weather, he said.

He said the planned search area was 22,804 square nautical miles in the west and east sector in that part of the ocean. 

Hishammuddin said Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Envoy of the Government of China, Zhang Yesui today met with the relatives of passengers from China who were on board MH370 and currently in Putrajaya.

“Malaysia is committed to working closely with the Government of China and to sharing all information related to MH370 in full,” he said.

Touching on the Malaysian high-level team that met with the relatives of Chinese passengers of MH370 in Beijing, he said: “As of 3.25pm Malaysia time.  The meeting is still underway”.

Malaysian officials also met with China’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Huang Huikang, to request the Government of China to engage and clarify the actual situation to the affected families in particular and the Chinese public in general, he added.

Chinese nationals made up 153 of the 227 passengers on board MH370 that vanished from radar screens nearly an hour after taking off from the KL International Airport in Sepang at 12.41am on March 8 en route to Beijing.

A multinational search was mounted for the aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then over a large tract of land and sea west of Malaysia, including the Indian Ocean, when it was learned that the plane had veered off far from its original course.

Following an unprecedented analysis method using satellite data, satellite company Inmarsat and Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that Flight MH370 flew south and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.

Based on that information, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced last Monday that Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean. — Bernama