'Accept they're dead and prepare for their funerals': China's blunt message to MH370 families as they vent fury at Malaysia's poor handling of the search



Chinese state newspaper urges families to 'not let anger prevail over facts'

Says they should accept evidence that plane had crashed in Indian Ocean

Setback in search as orange objects spotted turn out to be fishing gear



Prime Minster Tony Abbott visited Perth RAAF base Pearce this morning

Declared that all evidence points to the plane going down in Indian Ocean

Australia is pushing to retain control of the search operation

Wants wreckage analysed in Australia by Australian, US, British officials



Mr Abbott defended Malaysian PM's announcement last week that the 239 passengers on board were dead

He said they owed it to families to continue searching for 'quite some time'



Grieving relatives of the Chinese nationals on board flight MH370 have been told to divert their anger away from the Malaysian government and focus instead on making funeral arrangements.

In a hard-hitting editorial, a Chinese state-run newspaper urged the families to accept evidence that the Malaysian Airlines plane had crashed in the sea with no survivors.

Relatives have strongly criticised Malaysia's handling of the search, including the decision last week to say that, based on satellite evidence, the plane had ditched in the Indian Ocean on March 8.

Nearly 30 family members flew to Kuala Lumpur yesterday to vent their anger at the government, unfurling banners saying: 'Hand us the murderer. Tell us the truth. Give us our relatives back'.

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Could THIS be part of MH370? A picture taken on board a Royal New Zealand P-3 Orion shows a piece of unknown debris floating just under the water during the search for the missing plane in the Indian Ocean Mystery: A picture taken off a computer monitor shows a piece of the debris which has not yet been identified. The image has been sent off for analysis Drawing a blank: A Chinese aircraft returns to Perth International Airport after searching for the missing jet On the lookout: Able Seaman Marine Technician Matthew Oxley keeps watch on board HMAS Success in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 China has also been critical of Malaysia's investigation, but in a sign of its softening stance, the official China Daily newspaper urged the families not to direct 'irrational words and behaviour' towards the officials. It said it was understandable that not all sensitive information could be made public. RELATED ARTICLES Previous

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Next Seabed of jet hunt zone mostly flat with 1 trench EXCLUSIVE: Malaysian Airlines pilot jumps to defense of... Share this article Share 'Although the Malaysian government's handling of the crisis has been quite clumsy, we need to understand that this is perhaps the most bizarre incident in Asia civil aviation history,' the editorial read today. 'Public opinion should not blame the Malaysian authorities for deliberately covering up information in the absence of hard evidence.' Crew members of Chinese icebreaker Xuelong scan the sea in search of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 Staff members aboard the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration patrol ship Haixun 01 hold a net while scouring for objects It said they should now accept the evidence and begin preparing for the funerals of their loved ones. 'All the related parties can do is to continue to search for the wreckage, carry on negotiations with the Malaysian side for more information and prepare to make arrangements for funerals.

'But we should not let anger prevail over facts and rationality.' It comes as the search for the missing jet was dealt another setback today when Australian officials revealed a cluster of orange objects spotted by a search plane was nothing more than fishing equipment.

No time limit for the search: Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott addresses members of the international forces currently based in Perth searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 Hope has been lost: Tony Abbott defended the Malaysian prime minister's announcement that there was no hope for all on board the missing flight, saying all the evidence pointed to the plane going down in the southern Indian Ocean Mr Abbott said his main reason for visiting the RAAF base was to thank the personnel who have come to help with the search. He is pictured here shaking hands with China's Air Force Senior Colonel Liu Dianjun, head of China's effort to locate the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

The crew of an Australian P-3 Orion search plane spotted at least four orange objects that were more than 2 metres (6 ft) in size on Sunday, and the pilot, Flight Lt Russell Adams, dubbed the sighting their most promising lead in the search for Flight 370.



But on Monday, Jesse Platts, a spokesman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, said the objects had been analyzed and officials had confirmed 'they have nothing to do with the missing flight.'



Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed that all hope is lost for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight by declaring all 'evidence' points to the plane going down in the southern Indian Ocean.

Speaking to reporters from the RAAF base in Pearce, north of Perth, Mr Abbott this morning defended the Malaysian prime minister's announcement via text message last week that the 239 passengers on board were dead.

'The accumulation of evidence is that the aircraft has been lost and it has been lost somewhere in the south of the Indian Ocean,' Mr Abbott said.

'That's the absolute, overwhelming way of evidence and I think Prime Minister Naijb Razak was perfectly entitled to come to that conclusion.

'I think once that conclusion had been arrived at it was his duty to make that conclusion public.'

The announcement was heavily criticised last week for being insensitive and speculative due to the limited evidence - most notably that authorities still have no idea where the plane actually crashed.



Last week, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shifted the search area 1,000km closer to the country's west coast based on new calculations.

A ground crewman stands in front of a South Korean P3 Orion after it returned from the search yesterday. Australian aircraft have been joined in the seach by aircraft from New Zealand, Japan, China, South Korea, the US and Malaysia Crew members on board the Chinese ship Jinggangshan scours the target search area early today, in search of potential debris, spotted by aircraft Mr Abbott said this was an 'extraordinarily difficult' operation and he would not be putting a time limit on the search effort. 'I think we owe it to the families, we owe it to everyone who travels by air, we owe it to the governments of countries who had citizens on that aircraft, we owe it to the wider world who has been transfixed by this mystery for three weeks now,' he said. 'We owe it to everyone to do whatever we reasonably can and we can keep searching for quite some time to come and we will keep searching for quite some time. 'If anything, the intensity of the search and magnitude of the operation is increasing not decreasing. 'If nothing of substance is found, obviously such a point (where we stop searching) is eventually reached but we are well short of that point. If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it.' The Prime Minister said his office was in hourly contact with the Rescue Co-ordination Centre and was 'happy' to bear the majority of the costs for the search operation. 'This is a major international incident and Australia has the lead responsibility for operations inside our search and rescue zone,' he said.

'At the moment every country is bearing its own costs and obviously, we here in Australia will bear the costs of running the coordination centre.

Balloons were released on Sunday in the Malaysian capital to commemorate the presumed deaths of those onboard the missing plane. The Malaysian prime minister confirmed last week that while the plane had not yet been found, it could be assumed that all those on board had perished Residents of Malaysia prepare to release balloons as a symbol of remembrance for the victims of the ill-fated flight MH370 at Titiwangsa Lake on March 30 in Kuala Lumpur 'It's a cost we think is only reasonable as the country whose search and rescue zone the aircraft has come down, it's only reasonable we should bear this cost. It's an act of international citizenship on Australia's part.

'We are happy to be as helpful as we can to all of the countries that have a stake in this.'

Mr Abbott said his primary reason for the visit to the RAAF base was to thank all personnel involved for their tireless work in the air over the past three weeks.

He will travel to Japan, Korea and China in the coming days to thank their respective governments for their contributions in the search.

Mr Abbott’s comments come as Australia, Britain and the United Sates are pushing for a leading role in the investigation amid concerns that Malaysia is not capable of conducting the investigation by itself. Australian officials were in Malaysia over the weekend to urge the Malaysian government to promise that any wreckage recovered during the search would be examined in Australia before being removed to Malaysia. They are also asking Malaysian authorities to agree that if the missing plane’s flight data recorders are recovered, their contents should be examined and analysed in Australia by Australian, British and US experts.

Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 went missing three weeks ago, and the search has been concentrated in Australian waters for just over a week Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott poses with leaders of international military operations. He said today that he would continue the search 'for quite some time' and that Australia was happy to bear the brunt of the cost of the operation 'as an act of international citizenship on Australia's part' Such a request may not be received well by Malaysia, which is smarting from criticism about its handling of the disappearance, in particular the seeming insensitivity displayed when it texted the relatives of those on board the plane to let them know that there was no chance they would be found alive.

Under civil aviation law, Malaysia, as the country in which the lost plane was registered, is granted responsibility for the investigation.

Today’s search activities involved a total of 10 aircraft from seven nations.

They include one Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P3 Orion, a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) P3 Orion, one Japanese P3 Orion, a Japan Coast Guard Gulfstream jet, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force Ilyushin IL-76, a Republic of Korea P3 Orion, a United States Navy P8 Poseidon, two Royal Malaysian Air Force C-130 Hercules and one civil jet acting as a communications relay.

A total of 10 ships have also been tasked to today’s search. This includes HMAS Success and HMAS Toowoomba, seven Chinese ships and a merchant vessel.

The ADV Ocean Shield, which was fitted with a black box detector and an autonomous underwater vehicle, is scheduled to depart from Perth today.

An AMSA spokesman said some parts of the search area will experience low cloud and rain throughout the day. Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott meets South Korea's Navy Captain Lee Jin-young alongside China's Air Force Senior Colonel Liu Dian Jun (L) and Japan's Maritime Self Defence Force Commander Hidetsugu Iwamasa (2nd R). Mr Abbott will travel to Japan, Korea and China in the coming days to thank their respective governments for their contributions in the search US Navy Cap. Mark Matthews is pictured in front of Ocean Shield, an Australian warship fitted with a black box locator, which will join the search for missing MH370 today. The news comes as officials say the black box could have fallen into a trench twice the depth of the Grand Canyon Mr Abbott's visit to the search zone comes as authorities are still analysing photographs of several bright orange objects spotted by an Australian pilot during the search, which could be a 'promising lead' in the hunt for the vanished aircraft. Royal Australian Air Force Lieutenant Russell Adams said his crew saw the items during an 11-hour mission, each more than six-feet long. Despite the potential breakthrough, the pilot stressed he could not confirm whether the objects were parts of the plane which disappeared three weeks ago. It comes just days after debris pulled from the search area turned out to be fishing gear and items not related to the vanished flight MH370. Speaking at RAAF Pearce base, the Flight Lieutenant said: 'We were able to detect many objects in the water today. 'It's for the rescue co-ordination centre to analyse these (objects) and send investigators to investigate as they see appropriate. 'However, for my crew, from our perspective this was the best visibility we had of any objects in the water and gave us the most promising leads,' he said. Ships searching for debris in the hunt for missing flight MH370 have retrieved some objects from the Southern Indian Ocean. The Australian authorities coordinating the operation said none have been confirmed to have come from the missing Boeing 777 Chinese aircraft spotted three new objects floating off the western coast of Australia, as they scoured the new search area today. The items were said to be red, orange and white - similar to the colours of a Malaysia Airlines jet. This picture shows a suspected item of debris highlighted

Several objects have been spotted from search planes. This map shows the planned search area for Monday

He stressed the origins of the objects was still unknown, but their position was given to the rescue co-ordination centre and a GPS buoy was dropped in the area.

The search crews, who today scoured an area closer to the Australian coast, were aided by greater visibility , the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

British and U.S. secret services are searching for possible criminal involvement in the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, reports today suggest.



MI6 and the CIA have been helping Malaysian investigators look for reasons behind the Boeing 777 jet's disappearance after it lost all contact more than three weeks ago on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Malaysia's Defence Minister Mr Hishammuddin Hussein said the two agencies were working with Chinese spy agencies to try to find out why the plane suddenly changed course and headed to the west with its 239 mainly Chinese passengers and crew.

Mr Hishammuddin declined to put forward his personal thoughts, keeping instead to the official line that investigators were looking into the possibility of terrorism, hijacking, personal or psychological problems among passengers and crew or technical failure.

'These scenarios have been discussed at length with different intelligence agencies,' said the Minister.

MI6 agents have been particularly interested in checking out terrorism links following disclosures in a US court by a British man, Saajid Badad, who claimed that in 2001 he gave a shoe-bomb to some Malaysian men who wanted to blow open a plane's cockpit door and carry out a September 11-style hijacking.

We owe it to the families: Malaysians light candles that form a love heart at a 'Love U MH370' event in Kuala Lumpur

People hang messages of remembrance at the 'Love U MH370' event in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Nothing has been found so far to confirm the search area is where the plane actually went down

There has been widespread grief since the plane went missing three weeks ago, particularly among the families of the 239 passengers on board the plane Cards silhouetted on a wall spell out the name of the missing flight, along with images of love hearts and angels, to commemorate those who were on the missing flight