MH370: New batch of Chinese next-of-kin to reach KL Sunday morning

A new batch of next-of-kin of Chinese passengers who were on board missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 are expected to leave here for Kuala Lumpur (KL) at midnight Saturday night.

The families hope to be updated on the latest developments in the search and rescue (SAR) operation on the missing flight.

However, the total number of relatives who will fly to KL tonight remains unknowns.

According to the relatives' China's messaging application on Wechat, as of 6:30pm (local time) Saturday, a total of 50 visa applications from the relatives had been submitted to the Malaysian embassy.

During today's daily briefing with the relatives, Malaysian ambassador to China Datuk Iskandar Sarudin promised all visa applications submitted since last night, would be issued today.

Iskandar said the visa applications could be approved immediately today after receiving complete verification from MAS.

"Although today is not the embassy's working day, we still have the system operating to assist the families in getting their visas for departure," he said.

The high-level team from Malaysia to update the relatives on the SAR operation led by Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) air operations commander Lt Gen Datuk Seri Ackbal Abdul Samad had promised them that they would be accommodated at the Bangi-Putrajaya Hotel on Monday after the closure of the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix race.

Ackbal said the relatives would be accommodated at a different hotel first once they arrived in KL.

Bangi-Putrajaya Hotel is where families of other Chinese passengers on the board the ill-fated flight are currently staying.

The team, comprising of representatives from the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), the Department of Civil Aviation and Malaysia Airlines plane arrived in Beijing last Thursday.

Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers including 152 China nationals 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.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak then announced on March 24, seventeen days after the disappearance of Flight MH370 that it "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".

It was reported on Saturday that the search area for the missing MH370 had narrowed to a location about 1,100 kilometres to west of Perth, Australia based on updated advice provided by the international investigation team in Malaysia.