MH370 still Malaysia’s ‘top priority’, Liow assures families

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24 — As families of passengers and crew aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 grow restless over the fate of the missing aircraft, Putrajaya offered its assurance today that locating the jetliner remains its “top priority”.

In a statement here, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said he is flying to Canberra tomorrow where both the Australian and Malaysian governments, which have combined efforts in search of the jumbo jet in the Indian Ocean, will be inking a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation.

“I would also like to reassure the next-of-kin of MH370 passengers that we have maintained our resolve to continue with the search for this aircraft,” said Liow.

“MH370 remains a top priority for us and the Government of Malaysia to continue with the search,” he reiterated.

Liow is expected to meet Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, counterparts from China in a series of meetings in the Australian capital.

Flight MH370, the MAS Boeing 777-2ER carrying 239 people aboard, took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on March 8 and was headed to Beijing, China, before it fell off the radar less than an hour later.

But despite more than five months of searching by a multi-nation team of investigators, not a single debris from the aircraft has turned up. The international hunt is still ongoing for the plane in the perilous vast waters of the Indian Ocean, off Australia’s coast.

Shortly after the aircraft’s disappearance, the families of those aboard formed a group called “Voice370” with some 300 members.

The group has since been actively sourcing for information pertaining to the specification of the aircraft, aviation and a campaign to raise US$5 million (RM15.8 million) to get whistleblowers with information on the jet’s fate, among other activities.

Since the launch of the campaign in June, the group has managed to raise US$100,500.

Voice370, however, has accused the government of concealing information and incompetency as no trace of the aircraft has found despite an extensive search in the southern Indian Ocean.