KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) given an assurance that support for the next-of-kins of the missing flight MH370 passengers and crew members would not be compromised even after the company is
taken over by MAS NewCo.
Its chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya stressed that though his retirement was ‘not far ahead’, the responsibility would still be carried on, and would be continued under the new MAS management.
During a half-an-hour interview with Bernama, he said MAS would assist the next-of-kins in the best possible manner within whatever was described as reasonable.
“We will do our best…We ourselves (are) in the incident (and) had also lost friends and colleagues whom we described as family,” he said adding that the carrier would observe the incident’s anniversary with a private remembrance with the next-of-kins Sunday.
Thus far, the carrier had provided direct financial assistance, a dedicated Family Support Centre in Kuala Lumpur, family assistance centres in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing as well as other counselling support.
MAS NewCo or new company is responsible for a complete overhaul of the national carrier to its successful conclusion.
The current MAS entity would come under ‘Oldco’ or old company while the new restructured entity would come under ‘Newco’ effective July 1, 2015.
Meanwhile, asked on the families’ demand for answer, Ahmad Jauhari said that MAS was not trying to hide anything up their sleeves and they were more than willing to share information with those affected.
“However, we are not the party for technical answers because we are not responsible for the search. We might get answers about the search a bit sooner then the others, but we are still not responsible for the search.
“We can give the information about the aircraft, but that is all we have and can do…We are guided by whatever we have and whatever we know,” he said.
Ahmad Jauhari thanked MAS staff and the public for their limitless support which helped the national carrier to be operational till this date.
On March 8 last year, a MAS Boeing 777 was carrying 239 people when it vanished en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
MAS lost 12 crew members as well as a MASkargo staff. On Jan 29, the
Malaysian government officially declared it an accident under international aviation rules, and that all people aboard were presumed to have lost their lives.
In making that announcement, the Malaysian government also stressed that the search for the plane remained a priority.
Besides MH370, MAS MH17 en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam was shot down over troubled eastern Ukraine on July 17 last year, killing all 298 people on board.
In less than six months, MAS experienced two tragic incidents, lost more than 500 lives and nearly 30 members of its senior crew in what can only be described as unprecedented events in aviation history.-Bernama