Weekly updates received in search of MH370: Liow

PUTRAJAYA: The government has been receiving weekly seabed images from the search team looking for the remains of the missing flight MH370, which went missing on March 8 last year.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said that the government has been receiving underwater images from the search team moving around the 60,000 km sq area in the Southern Indian Ocean, where the plane carrying 239 people is believed to have ended.
"The images were received are small dots, but these are actually huge objects in the seabed.
"These dots have been analysed, and most of them are either containers or ship wreckages," he said, adding that no parts from MH370 have been found yet.
He noted that the underwater search was not simple as it involves depth of between 6,000 and 7,000 meters deep.
"Even in the waters where the Indonesia AirAsia (QZ8501) crashed was about six or seven meters deep, there are still bodies which cannot be found," Liow said.
He added that the government and the authorities involved are not giving up, but pushing forward with the search for the aircraft.
"I am cautiously optimistic about this (finding MH370), as all the search was done based on scientific data and Inmarsat satellite data," he said.
At the moment, 26,000 km sq or 40% of the priority area in the Southern Indian Ocean have been search, with the operations expected to be completed by May.
Speaking to reporters at a press briefing held at the Ministry building here today, a few days shy of the anniversary of the missing airplane, Liow added if they have not found anything in the search area by May, the search does not end there.
"We will come back to the drawing board and reevaluate the figures and data that we have," he said.
With regards to the MH370 passengers' Next of Kins (NOKs), Liow said that the authorities have been in contact with them, but there are still room for improvement.
"Malaysian Airlines (MAS) and a MH370 NOK committee have been engaging with the NOKs, both local and foreign, and been informing them of updates from the search," he said, adding that centres were set up in China and Australia to engage with the families.
Liow said that the authorities are also transparent in the search.
He added that since the incident, he had put several proposals to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to improve safety for commercial flight travel, during a ICAO convention in Montreal in October last year.
"I have proposed that a real time tracker to be installed in planes, so that data can be transmitted every 15 minutes to the control tower," he said.
Liow pointed out that ICAO has set up a committee to look into the proposal, with a decision on the matter be announced in August this year.
"With the approval, I have instructed MAS to install these its commercial airplanes," he added.