Missing jet ‘crashed into Indian Ocean’

A relative of passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 reacts after learning that the missing jet had crashed into the Indian Ocean.

AFP

Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia said yesterday its missing airliner had crashed into the Indian Ocean, extinguishing the hopes of relatives of those on board but shedding no light on why it veered so far off course.

A sombre Prime Minister Najib Razak said a new analysis of satellite data on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370’s path placed its last position in remote waters off Australia’s west coast, “far from any possible landing sites”.

“It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” Najib said.

The plane went missing on March 8 with 239 people aboard - two thirds of them Chinese - en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The announcement touched off deep despair among relatives in both cities.

“What can I say? I had the belief that my son would return home safely. But what can be done?” said Subramaniam Gurusamy, whose 34-year-old son Puspanathan Gurusamy was on board.

“This is fate. We must accept it,” he said, his voice choking with emotion.

In Beijing, family members who have gathered in a hotel throughout the crisis, repeatedly raging at the airline over the agonising 17-day wait for information, were crushed when the carrier finally broke the news at a meeting in the hotel’s ballroom.