Govt will never give up search for MH370

BEIJING: The Malaysian government will never give up on the search for Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 despite the black box of the missing aircraft only being able to emit signals for approximately 30 days, said Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) Air Traffic Services Director Ahmad Nizar Zolfakar.
He said the Malaysian government was committed to continuing the SAR (Search and Rescue) operations until the black box of the plane was retrieved. Nizar said the government would follow the steps taken in the SAR operation for Air France flight 447 which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.
"It took two years to find the black box of Air France 447, hence we will take it as a good example for the SAR mission on MH370. "Finding the black box is the (Malaysian) government's utmost priority," he said.
Nizar said this at a regular briefing between a Malaysian high-level delegation and relatives of Chinese passengers on the ill-fated flight, here Thursday.
The briefing which began at 3pm ended at 6.40pm (local time). Meanwhile, Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) air operations commander Lt Gen Datuk Seri Ackbal Abdul Samad urged the families not to view the briefing as a trial and throw questions involving legal aspects.
During the briefing, dozens of technical and speculative questions were asked by the relatives. The questions involved facilities equipped in the Boeing 777-200ER to prevent hijacking, the maximum height flown by MH370, how long it could fly above the height limit, oxygen sufficiency and physical reaction of the passengers in the aircraft once it reach the height limit.
The families also asked if any satellite phone calls were made while the plane's Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System(ACARS) and transponder were shut off.

They also requested representatives from Rolls-Royce (the engine maker) and Boeing be present at future briefings. The high-level team led by Ackbal arrived in Beijing last Thursday. The team, comprising of representatives from the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), the Department of Civil Aviation and Malaysia Airlines is tasked to brief the families of the latest developments on the SAR for the missing plane.
Some 154 Chinese nationals were among the 227 passengers on the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Boeing 777-200ER aircraft that disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. It was to have landed in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.
A multinational search was mounted for the aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learned that the plane had veered off course, along two corridors - the northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand and the southern corridor, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
Following an unprecedented type of analysis of satellite data, United Kingdom satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that Flight MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak then announced on March 24, seventeen days after the disappearance of Ffight MH370 that it "ended in the southern Indian Ocean". – Bernama