MH370 Lost in Indian Ocean: Timor-Leste

commends Malaysia

PUTRAJAYA: Timor-Leste Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao today commended the Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) over their handling of the missing MAS flight crisis.

"Malaysia is to be applauded for leading the multi-national search effort which has been an outstanding example of leadership and co-operation among the international communities," he said.

At a joint press conference with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak after a bilateral meeting at the Perdana Putra complex here, Gusmao also expressed his condolences to the families of the aircraft passengers and crew over their loss.

Gusmao is on a three-day official visit to Malaysia beginning today. This is Gusmao's first visit to Malaysia in his capacity as the Timor-Leste prime minister after having been reappointed for a second term on Aug 8, 2012.

He had visited Malaysia as the Timor-Leste president to attend the 13th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in 2003 and the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition in 2005.

Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, left the KL International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea. It was to have landed in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.

A multinational search was mounted for the aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learned that the plane had veered off course, along two corridors - the northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand and the southern corridor, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Following an unprecedented type of analysis of satellite data, United Kingdom satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that Flight MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia.

Najib then announced on March 24, seventeen days after the disappearance of the flight, that it "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".-- BERNAMA

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak shakes hands with Timor-Leste Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao (left) at Perdana Putra. Gusmao is on a three-day official visit to Malaysia. Pix by Fariz Iswadi Ismail.