BALI, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - Malaysian and Australian governments plan to work alongside in the investigation of the two Malaysian Airlines tragedies involving the missing MH370 and the MH17 which crashed in eastern Ukraine, the New Straits Times reported on Saturday.
"We are fully aware of our duty to the families of the passengers and crew of flight MH370 searching for answers (on what happened to the missing aircraft)," said Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at a joint press conference with his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott, who arrived in Malaysia on Saturday for a one-day official visit.
The MH370 Flight took off from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members and allegedly disappeared into the southern Indian Ocean.
The wreckage of the aircraft has not yet been found, but coordinating efforts in late August suggested the plane could have crashed south of the previously searched area.
A new stage of the search operation will begin involving the Dutch company Fugro Survey Pty. The company will use two ships with towed underwater vehicles equipped with side sonar and cameras in a search of a 60,000 square kilometer area of the Indian Ocean’s sea bed. The operations will continue until the end of this year.
Regarding the recent Boeing 777 crash in Ukraine, Najib said that Malaysia and Australia will make greater efforts to bring home the remains of all the victims. Malaysia also requires a full, independent and transparent investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Flight MH17, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, crashed on July 17 in the Donetsk region. The crash killed all 298 passengers on the plane, including 43 Malaysian nationals and 38 Australians.
