MH370 ruled ‘an accident’

The Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) on Thursday officially declared the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 "an accident," pledging that the search for the plane "remains a priority," but the decision will enable the compensation process to begin.

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of the DCA, said in a press conference that all 239 of the passengers and crew onboard MH370 are "presumed to have lost their lives."

The Boeing 777 lost contact with air traffic control shortly after taking off from Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014 en route to Beijing. Of the 239 onboard, 154 passengers were Chinese nationals.

An unprecedented search and rescue mission involving assets from 25 countries for 327 days yielded no information about the location of the aircraft, said Azharuddin.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday said it was a "hard moment" for suffering families and the Chinese people, urging the Malaysian side to fully investigate the accident and properly settle compensation claims, while continuing to make all efforts to locate the plane and passengers.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying offered "profound sympathies and sincere condolences" to family members of the passengers, promising that the Chinese government, which had mobilized massive resources to aid the search, will stay with the families to provide help and continue the search operation.

She also expressed deep appreciation and gratitude for efforts made by the governments of Malaysia, Australia and other countries and organizations.

The DCA declaration was made based on annexes 12 and 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, commonly referred to as the "Chicago Convention," which state that the "missing" can be viewed as an "accident" when the search has been terminated and the wreckage has not been located.

On April 28, 2014, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority advised that the search was transitioning from a search and rescue operation to a search and recovery phase, which is in compliance with the annexes acknowledging input from other state authorities in the decision-making process leading to termination of search and rescue operations.

Azharuddin said the only available data suggests that MH370 ended somewhere along an arc in the southern Indian Ocean which has known depths of more than 6,000 meters.

However, a lack of physical evidence, particularly the two flight recorders, provides no substantial evidence to determine the cause of the accident, said Azharuddin. He added that Malaysian authorities will release an interim statement detailing the safety investigation around the one year anniversary of the accident.