

Malaysia is working with its international partners to assess the credibility of reports of potential aircraft wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the Bay of Bengal, confirmed transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein in an investigation update issued today.

“In line with Malaysia’s consistent stand of verifying and corroborating any new lead since day one of the search operations, we are aware of a report citing the detection of potential aircraft wreckage in the Bay of Bengal. China and Australia are also aware of this report,” he said. “Malaysia is working with its international partners to assess the credibility of this information.”

Statement Issued By GeoResonance

Australian exploration company GeoResonance has claimed to have found the wreckage of an aircraft, six weeks after the disappearance of the aircraft on 8 March in the Bay of Bengal, 5,000 km from the current search location in the southern Indian Ocean off Perth using over 20 technologies to analyse data.



“The fact that MH370 has still not been found underscores the complexity and difficulty of this search operation,” reported the minister.

He said Malaysia will now discuss with its international counterparts, including the Australian authorities which have the search for MH370 off the coast of Perth, how the new search operation, as announced earlier this week by Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott will proceed.

Hussein said discussions would include issues such as the deployment of assets with deep sea search capabilities, the cost of the operation and how best authorities can ensure relatives of MH370 passengers are properly informed of the latest developments.

Hussein reported that Malaysia has also appointed the investigator in charge for the international investigation team: Dato Kok Soo Chon, a former director general of the Department of Civil Aviation and also a former permanent representative to the ICAO Council in Montreal.

The investigation team, which has already commenced its work, includes the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), China’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Department (AAID) of The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), France’s Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA), the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and representatives of ASEAN from Singapore and Indonesia. Included in the team are Boeing, Rolls Royce and Inmarsat.

Hussein said the main purpose of the investigation team is to evaluate, investigate and determine the actual cause of the incident so similar incidents could be avoided in the future.

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