Two years on, Malaysia remains steadfast in its search for MH370 — Liow Tiong Lai

MARCH 7 — To mark the second anniversary of MH370, a moment of silence will be observed tomorrow, March 8, 2016, by the Malaysian Parliament. It will be led by His Excellency Speaker of the House of Representatives, who will read a special Condolence Address during the session.

In tandem, an Interim Statement will be released by the Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370, which comprises 19 AccreditedRepresentatives from seven international Air Accident and Incident Investigation Organisations from Australia, China, France, Indonesia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States of America which is led by Malaysia in accordance with ICAO Annex 13.

The Chief Investigator, Dato’ Kok Soo Chon will release the statement at 3.00pm via a televised broadcast on the Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) 1. The statement will be uploaded to the official MH370 website (www.mh370.gov.my), where it will first be made available to the next-of-kin only, and subsequently made public at 3.00pm Malaysian time.

In the intervening months, an intensive, international search for the aircraft commenced and continues till today. In-depth analysis of satellite and radar data was conducted by the Search Strategy Working Group, comprising experts from various international organisations including the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Defence Technology and Science Organisation (DTSO) Australia, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Boeing US, Thales UK, the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch UK, Inmarsat UK and the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia (DCA). Based on their findings, a 120,000 square kilometre search area was defined as having the highest probability of locating the aircraft.

The Governments of Malaysia, Australia and China have committed funds, equipment and vessels including Fugro Equator, Fugro Discovery, Havilla Harmony and Dong Hai Jiu 101 which are currently searching the area. These efforts have allowed us to cover close to 90,000 square kilometres of ocean floor thus far.

The areas covered have yielded more than 500 findings of which it is classified into three categories; I, II and III. These classifications are divided into relevance; category I and II require further analysis while category III does not. After detailed analysis by the experts, none of these findings provide us with any indication of the missing aircraft so far.

Malaysia, Australia and China High Level Technical Task Force (HLTTF) convenes fortnightly tripartite teleconference to coordinate the search, follow up any leads, briefings on analysis and discussions on the way forward for the search of MH370. Furthermore, I chair the MH370 Committee comprising of Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, Ministry of Communications and Multimedia, the Attorney General Chambers, the Royal Malaysian Police and the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on a regular basis.

Already, a piece of debris belonging to the aircraft was found on French Island of Reunion last year, verified by experts from the French Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA), Boeing, NTSB, AAIB UK, ATSB, CAAC China, DCA, Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370.

The finding at Reunion Island is consistent with the drift pattern analysis, which reaffirms the search area. Currently, we are awaiting verification of two more pieces of debris which were discovered recently in Mozambique and Reunion Island respectively.

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.

*The above statement is a press release issued by the Minister of Transport in conjunction with the second anniversary of the disappearance of Flight MH370.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.