KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Families of three of the 239 passengers and crew aboard the missing flight MH370 have come forward to negotiate full compensation with national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS), Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said today.

The Transport Minister said that the three next-of-kin were the only ones so far to step forward as at March 6, after Malaysian authorities declared that the plane was lost in an “accident” on January 29.

“Following the accident declaration, it opens up more room for the next-of-kin of the passengers and crew of Flight MH370 to receive the needed assistance to continue with their daily lives,” he said in a written parliamentary reply to a question from BN’s Lenggong MP Datuk Shamsul Anuar Nasarah.

Earlier this month, MAS said it was in the process of providing full compensation pay-outs to the MH370 next-of-kin, adding that it will contact the family members to discuss the compensation.

On January 29, the Malaysian government declared the loss of Flight MH370 as an accident under international aviation regulations.

Many of the families of those on board the missing plane, however, have refused to accept the declaration, stating that there is no proof to show that the plane had ended up in an accident.

Search efforts are underway in a 60,000 square kilometre priority search area in a remote section of the southern Indian Ocean where the plane is believed to have ended its journey on March 8 last year.

There, however, has not been any debris or wreckage from MH370 found to date, as the undersea search and recovery operation nears its May deadline for completion.