OVERSEAS family members of passengers of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 unable to travel to Malaysia for the release of the full report on the plane’s disappearance on Monday have asked to attend the event via video conference.

Grace Nathan, whose mother is among the missing passengers, said she learnt of the request via networks the relatives have maintained since the tragedy on March 8, 2014.

Grace told The Malaysian Insight that the request has been relayed to the Transport Ministry.

“We have requested that the Transport Ministry arranges for an online video conference, so that the families abroad can listen to the briefing in real time, but the Transport Ministry hasn’t responded to our request,” said Grace, who lives in Kuala Lumpur.

She said many next of kin living abroad could not attend the briefing in Putrajaya due to cost or scheduling problems.

The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team will release the MH370 Safety Investigation Report at the Transport Ministry on Monday.

https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/79401

Lead investigator Kok Soo Choon present the findings to the relatives of the missing passengers in the closed-door event before the report is released to the media the same day.

In the past, there was much anger from the next of kin over the handling of interim reports and news updates on the missing flight. Families complained that they were only informed minutes before or at the same time as the rest of the public.

In the early days of the tragedy, the government, MAS and local agencies involved in the search for the plane were severely criticised for poor communication and insensitivity in dealings with the missing passengers’ kin.

There were 239 people on board MH370, including 12 crew members. 

The passengers are from 13 countries, including Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, India, France, the Netherlands, Ukraine, the US and Canada, with 152 of them from China.

The Transport Ministry is arranging a special briefing in Beijing on August 3 for the Chinese families, said press secretary to the minister, Lim Swee Kuan.

He said officials from the ministry will lead the briefing there.

MH370 went missing after taking off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It turned back while over the South China Sea, south of Vietnam, 38 minutes after take-off, but lost control tower communication.

It was last detected on radar north of Sumatra near the Andaman Islands.

The plane was last detected in a series of satellite ‘pings’, by which time it was believed to be over the southern Indian Ocean.

In January last year, a US$155 million (RM610 million) search for the Boeing 777 in the hostile waters of the southern Indian Ocean, off the coast of western Australia, was called off. It was paid for by the Malaysian, Chinese and Australian governments.

In January, private US firm Ocean Infinity resumed the search over a narrowed-down area on the understanding it would only be paid if the plane was found. The search ended in June without new findings.

In the last four years, parts of the plane identified by the numbers on them have been found off the eastern coast of Africa and on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean.

Five family members of three MH370 passengers on July 24 filed for a judicial review to declassify documents on the missing flight placed under the Official Secrets Act 1972. – July 28, 2018.