KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) will now broadcast an announcement on the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 on state television channel RTM at 6pm today.
The rescheduled announcement was made by the Ministry of Transport (MOT), after abruptly cancelling an earlier media briefing at the DCA office in Putrajaya scheduled for 3.30pm.
“The announcement by DG DCA has been delayed & will be aired on RTM at 6pm. Separate arrangement had been made to communicate with the NOKs,” the ministry said on its official Twitter account @MOTMalaysia, using the acronym for “next of kin”.
In a statement later, the DCA said the media briefing today was by invitation for media only.
“Due to the presence of next-of-kin at the briefing, it was not appropriate to continue, and the briefing was cancelled,” it said.
Relatives of some of the 239 passengers and cabin crew of the national carrier were spotted among the attendees earlier, after being tipped off that there was to be an announcement made regarding the fate of the plane that mysterious disappeared from radars on March 8 last year while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
On March 24 last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the missing MAS jetliner MH370 “ended” its journey in the southern Indian Ocean, but stopped short of saying that the Boeing 777 aircraft had crashed into the vast ocean.
