KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 — The next of kin of those aboard Flight MH370 today asked Putrajaya for a briefing next week for updates on the search for the plane now missing for nearly three months.

The group of families called Voice370 said they wanted Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin, chair of the MH370 NOK (next of kin) committee, to inform them of the committee’s plans to assist them in getting through the “difficult” period, as not even a trace of the Boeing 777 jet has been found since it disappeared three months ago on March 8.

“We would like also to discuss with Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin on the area that we really need assistance and also the possibility to have a briefing by him and/or Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) on the progress of the search of MH370,” Voice370 said in a statement.

“We hope and pray that we will get a respond (sic) this time. We have indicated in our request for meeting, letter dated 6 June 2014, attention to Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin and copy to the prime minister, acting minister of transport, Group CEO of Malaysia Airlines System Bhd (MAS) and MAS Families Support Centre that we expect to receive a written reply by 11 June 2014,” they added.

Family members of the crew on board the missing plane recently alleged that they are being neglected by the airline and Malaysian authorities, and the announcement by Australian authorities to call off the first phase of the search only compounded their frustrations.

But Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said subsequently on Wednesday that the families of the 239 passengers and crew aboard the missing jetliner would not be ignored.

The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) also demanded that MAS and the government do what they can to help the families of the flight attendants, who they claim have not received any aid beyond caretaker services.

The JACC said on May 29 that the first phase of the search had ended with no trace of the plane.

The search will enter a new phase covering a 60,000 square kilometre area along MH370’s probable flight arc over the southern Indian Ocean, but only after a bathymetric survey map of the sea floor is completed within a three-month window.

The ongoing search for flight MH370 is considered the longest and most expensive in the world’s aviation history, with the Reuters news agency estimating costs to have hit RM141 million for the first month alone.

The Boeing 777 jet, which was carrying 239 people on board, disappeared on March 8 after the plane veered from its Beijing-bound flight path and flew in the opposite direction towards the southern Indian Ocean.