KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 ― It was on the morning of March 8, 2014, exactly two years ago when Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 bound for Beijing, China, went missing from radar screens, less than an hour after takeoff from Malaysia’s federal capital.

The mysterious disappearance of the passenger jet carrying 239 people gripped the world and dominated media headlines for months after as governments came forward with their best experts in all related fields to put together a comprehensive plan to ensure the plane is found.

But today, despite an extensive sea search spanning some 90,000 sq km, the grieving kin of those who were aboard the ill-fated jetliner have yet to receive conclusive answers to their questions on the aircraft’s whereabouts and what exactly transpired that morning two years ago.

The first major breakthrough in the search was on July 29 last year when a piece of marine debris was spotted on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion. The debris was later confirmed to be a wing fragment or flaperon that was once part of the MH370 aircraft.

In recent days, there have been two more discoveries of possible plane fragments - one discovered by an American investigator in Mozambique, some 2,100km west of Reunion and another in Reunion, by the same man who found the flaperon.

Investigators are now working on determining if the fragments were part of MH370.

In a statement yesterday, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai pledged Malaysia’s continued commitment to the hunt for MH370 and offered prayers to those who lost loved ones aboard the flight.

“These past two years have been fraught with grief and concern for the families and loved ones of the 239 passengers and crew on board MH370. No words can describe the pain and sorrow the families and loved ones are certainly feeling at this time.

“Our commitment to the families and to the citizens of Malaysia remains steadfast as we continue to complete the highest probability area and to find the answers that we all seek. Our thoughts and prayers will always be with the families and loved ones of those on board flight MH370,” he said.

But to the families of MH370’s passengers, the Reunion Island find and the latest fragment discoveries have provided little comfort.

Some have continued to lash out at the authorities, insisting that the failure of the two-year hunt was because searchers were acting on false data and may have been looking for the plane in the wrong place.

“We expect to hear official pronouncements excusing the failure to find MH370, relabelling the disappearance a mystery. There is nothing mysterious about falsifying data…. there is nothing mysterious about failing to find MH370 in a search based on this data.

“We renew our call for an advance which does not depend on expert analysis of false data, for an advance which, if they are still alive, may return our loved ones to us.

“We renew our call for amnesty in exchange for the return of the missing and we renew our call to all representative nations to support us,” a group claiming to represent families of the aircraft’s Chinese passengers said in a media statement last Sunday in conjunction with the two-year anniversary of MH370’s disappearance.

Kin members of the flight’s 239 passengers have also decided to file lawsuits against MAS, the Malaysian government and agencies spearheading the search and rescue operations.

The biggest was filed at the High Court here yesterday today by 76 family members who made out their lawsuit against the Malaysian government, MAS, Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), and the Royal Malaysia Air Force (RMAF).

Similar suits have also been filed in the United States, Australia and China. According to the Montreal Convention signed in 1999, any claims for damages must be filed within two years of the date the flight arrived or should have arrived.

MH370 disappeared from civilian radars shortly after leaving Malaysian airspace on the wee hours of March 8, 2014.

After a search and rescue mission, the Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced on March 24 that year that the plane had “ended” its flight in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysia, China and Australia have since spent more than US$100 million (RM409 million) mapping the ocean floor in a 46,000 square mile area in an attempt to find the plane’s wreckage.

The disappearance of Flight MH370 is to this day referred to as the world’s most baffling aviation mystery. The massive search operation mounted for the aircraft is also said to be the most expensive to date.