Latest developments:

• Gov't release preliminary report, cargo manifest

 

PM Najib ordered search along Straits of Malacca on day of disappearance

 

MAS to close family assistance centres

 

Advanced compensation payments won't affect future claims, says MAS

 

Bangladesh sends two frigate to search Bay of Bengal

Follow us as we bring the latest updates and coverage for the search of Flight MH370:

Preliminary report: M'sia recommends real-time tracking

8.05pm: Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein releases the preliminary report Malaysia sent to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) early last month.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Hishammuddin also releases a copy of the audio recordings of the communication between the cockpit and air traffic control on March 8 just before the aircraft lost contact, the actions taken between 1:38am and 06:14am that day, a map of a number of possible flight paths , as well as plane’s seating plan and cargo manifest .

 

The cargo manifest does not reveal anything unusual, apart from the reported lithium batteries and large consignment of mangosteens.

 

In the preliminary report the Transport Ministry’s Office of the Chief Inspector of Air Accident recommended to the ICAO for possible implementation of real-time tracking of commercial flights.

 

MH370 disappeared from Kuala Lumpur radar at 1.21 am. Ho Chi Minh air traffic control enquired about the plane’s wherabouts 17 minutes later.

 

Malaysia air traffic control enlisted the help of Singapore, Cambodia and Hong Kong as well as another MAS flight MH386 to try to establish the location of MH370.

 

Kuala Lumpur Rescue Coordination Centre (KL RCC) was activated at 5:30am, four hours after the plane went missing, and search and rescue operations began in South China Sea.

 

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had orderd search for missing Flight MH370 to be extended to the Straits of Malacca , alongside that being carried out at the South China Sea, on the same morning of the plane’s disappearance following the detecting of the plane on military radar hours earlier.

Najib made the order immediately after being informed on the crisis and 10.30am by Hishammuddin.

 

Two Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) vessels, KD Mahamiru and KD Laksamana Muhamad Amin, already in the Straits on patrol duties were immediately retasked.

 

Military aircraft was also sent to join the ships at 10.54am that day.

MAS' family assistance centres to close May 7

7pm: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Group Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya releases a press statement. Here are some of the highlights:

• He says MAS is “acutely conscious of, and deeply sympathetic to the continuing unimaginable anguish, distress and hardship suffered by those with loved ones on board the flight.”

 

Members of the international investigation team led by Malaysia will comprise accredited representatives from US, UK, Australia, China, France and Singapore as well as from relevant international organisations and civil aviation industry.

 

MAS commits itself to fully cooperate in the investigation, in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.    

 

It is adjusting the mode of services and support to the families of passengers on board MH370. It will be closing all of its family assistance centres around the world by Wednesday, May 7.

 

Instead of staying in hotels, the families are advised to return to their homes where MAS will keep contact them via phone calls, messages, online, and face-to-face meetings. Detailed plan of follow-up support and services will be informed in person to the families.

 

Family support centres will be established in Kuala Lumpur and in Beijing.

 

It will also be making advanced compensation payments to nominated next-of-kin who are entitled to claim compensation.

[Note - Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Hamzah Zainudin, who heads the next-of-kin ministerial committee, later affirms this in a statement.]

 

Families are assured the advanced payments will not affect the rights of the next-of-kin to claim compensation according to the law at a later stage, and will be calculated as part of the final compensation.

 

This advance payment will be initiated immediately after the next-of-kin have returned home.

 

Investigators must probe Bay of Bengal claim

6.50pm: Bangladesh has sent two frigates to the Bay of Bengal to investigate claims by an Australian form GeoResonance that the wreckage of the missing Boeing 777 could be located there, CNN reports.

"As soon as they get there, they will search and verify the information," Commodore Rashed Ali, director of Bangladesh navy intelligence, tells CNN in Dhaka.

GeoResonance has claimed it traced aluminum, titanium, copper and other elements consistent with that of a Boeing in the Bay of Bengal, leading it to believe the missing plane ended up there.

However, searchers have said they are satisfied with calculations of satellite and other data which have placed the plane in the south Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, CNN aviation expert Miles O'Brien expresses doubts over GeoResonance's claims, as experts he has spoken to do know of any technology capable of doing what the firm claims to have done, based on "magic box" technology.

“I am just horrified that a company would use this event to gain attention like this," he says.

Even as so, CNN says investigators have little choice but to check out the claim due to lack of any findings after more than six weeks of search.

Singapore deciding rep for investigating team

4pm: Singapore will be sending a representative to join the international team being set up by Malaysia to investigate MH370's disappearance, the Straits Times reports.

Its Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew reportedly says that the Singaporean government is finalising its decision on who they would be sending to be part of the team.

Former director-general for Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department (DCA), Kok Soo Choon, would lead this team.

Latest Beijing protest drew little interest

3.30pm: A Straits Times report states that sympathy for the kin of MH370 passengers, who are in Beijing, is fast running out.

About 60 relatives had walked 3.8km and camped all night in front of the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing last Thursday, but the matter did not capture the attention of the media or even netizens, who have been supportive of the families in the past.

The families' previous protest at the same embassy on Mar 25 drew widespread interest but they were ignored by security staff at the embassy in their latest protest.

The report also states that analysts are opining that the relatives have played their "victimhood to the point of losing sympathy".

The relatives, numbering at about 500 people for the 153 Chinese nationals on the ill-fated flight, have had their meals and lodging in four-star hotels taken care of by Malaysia Airlines (MAS), and netizens have begun pointing this out to the families.

They were also reportedly given more than US$6,000 (RM19,600) in spending money by MAS.

The relatives of the passengers had been critical of Malaysia and MAS' handling of the plane's disappearance since the day the incident took place.

US defence official: Is SAR worth hundred of millions?

2.00pm: According to Reuters , the United States might be the first major donor country to scale back its financial commitment for the search that is deemed to be lengthy and excessive.

It quotes an unnamed US senior defence official as saying that US is not going to "pay to perpetually use equipments on an indefinite basis".

The official also says that countries involved "need to pick up a contract" from now on.

"We're already at tens of millions (of dollars). Is it worth hundreds of millions?" the official is quoted as saying.

Read the full Reuters report here .

New phase commenced yesterday

1.30pm: To recap, the Joint Action Coordination Centre (JACC) had said that the search is entering a "new phase" that will cover a larger area, starting yesterday.

The US Navy-loaned autonomous underwater vehicle, Bluefin-21 ( right ), had completed a total of 17 missions scouring the seabed at a 314 square kilometre area in the Indian Ocean- where the search and rescue team were initially encouraged by the towed pinger locator's detection of pings in the area.

However, Australia is in talks with private firms to carry out the search in the new area, which is not just larger, but also deeper, necessitating more sophisticated equipment.  

Meanwhile, aerial search has been called of as it is deemed “highly unlikely” any floating debris will be found at his late stage into the search.

Meanwhile, acting Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein says preliminary report on the plane’s disappearance, which was sent to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), will be made public today, following criticism when Malaysian government initially expressed uncertainty when asked it the report will be released to the public.

Poseidons exit SAR ops

11am: The US Navy is withdrawing its state-of-the-art P-8 Navy Poseidon aircrafts from the search and rescue operations, according to Naval Today .

The US Navy 7th fleet, which is assisting with the search and rescue operations, are also withdrawing their supply ship USNS Cesar Chavez from the operations.

The decision was taken in coordination with the Australian and Malaysian governments, in view of diminishing possibilities that debris from the plane could be found on the surface of the water.

The two Poseidons, had completed 45 search missions above the Indian Ocean, completing 396 hours of flight time, covering a massive 513,000 nautical mile radius.

Only the US and India owns the Poseidon aircrafts, and both had assisted in the search for MH370.

Background:

• The Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200ER aircraft went missing not long after taking off from KL International Airport in the early hours of March 8, with 12 crew members and 227 passengers.

 

Authorities have determined that the plane intentionally turned back and altered its course shortly after cutting communications with tower controllers for unknown reasons and, based on satellite data, have estimated its last position to be in the south Indian Ocean.

 

Australia leads the search in the south Indian Ocean. As of March 30, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) is tasked with overseeing the operations, led by retired air marshal and former defence chief Angus Houston.

 

The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 was deployed on April 14 to conduct an undersea search where the Australia Defence Vessel Ocean Shield had picked up two pings similar to black boxes on April 5 and two more on April 8 but failed to reacquire them again with the pinger locator.

 

However, after 52 days with no sign of the wreckage, authorities announced that the search will move on the next phase, which will focus on a larger and deeper area of the sea floor, while the aerial search will cease as it is highly unlikely any floating debris will be found at this stage.