Latest developments:

Malaysia in talks with local firms to deploy assets

Chinese families fear they'll be cut off when told by MAS to go home

Search chief says estimates search will take 8 - 12 months

Bay of Bengal claim dismissed

Hisham to fly to Australia, to meet with China on SAR assets

Investigators to have private meet to review military data

M'sia 'D', South Korea 'A-', says columnist

7.28pm: Tokyo-based Bloomberg View columnist William Pesek accords the Malaysian government a ‘D’, but its South Korean counterpart as ‘A-’ in their respective handling of crises which have affected the two nations - the disappearance of Flight MH370 and the sinking of a Sewol ferry.

“Fairly or unfairly, the hunt for a missing Malaysian airliner and the desperate attempt to rescue and now recover victims from the sunken Sewol ferry are being viewed as tests of the governments in Putrajaya and Seoul, if not of Malaysian and South Korean societies.

“In the two weeks since the Sewol tipped over and sank - almost certainly killing 302 passengers, most of them high school students - Korea has been gripped by a paroxysm of self-questioning, shame and official penitence.

“President Park Geun Hye issued a dramatic and heartfelt apology. Her No 2, Prime Minister Chung Hong Won, resigned outright.”

In Malaysia's case, however, he writes on Thursday: “55 days after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished? Nothing."

“No officials have quit. Prime Minister Najib (Abdul) Razak seems more defiant than contrite. The docile local news media has focused more on international criticism of Malaysia's leaders rather than on any missteps by those leaders themselves.”

'Keep Malaysia flag flying'

5.20pm: Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein leads a press briefing on the status of the ongoing search for MAS Flight MH370 at the Royale Chulan Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Here are some of the highlights:

Joint Agency Coordination Centre Chief (JACC) chief coordinator Angus Houston and French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) president Mr Jean-Paul Troadec are in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the new phase of the MH370 search and recovery operations.

The international investigation team, led by former Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) chief Kok Soo Chon has commenced investigations as stipulated by the terms of reference laid out by the ICAO.

Malaysia is in talks with several local companies, such as Petronas, Deftech, Boustead and SapuraKencana, to the possibility of deploying specialised assets to aid search efforts, including autonomous unmanned vehicles, deep-water towed side scan sonars, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and support vessels.

"It is important for all the Malaysian entities involved in this effort to be on the same page - working as one team, flying the Malaysian flag to find MH370."

Additional assets from the US Navy and research institutes in Japan and Germany are being considered as well.

He agrees with Houston that claims the plane’s wreckage is in the Bay of Bengal is “highly unlikely”, stressing that many leads in the past have proven to be untrue.

He will not be deploying any assets there, as he stated earlier in the day, as he is awaiting more news from the Bangladesh navy before deciding.

The investigation team will look into the 17-minute delay before officials noticed the plane had disappeared, when protocol is 5 minutes.

Hishammuddin says the same team to also determine if the four-hour length of time before search efforts were initiated is acceptable or not. He points out it took six hours before search and rescue operation was launched in the 2009 Air France incident.

He says Malaysia has nothing to hide as it is not just Malaysia but world and the entire aviation industry need to know what happened.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin says MAS supported families in Beijing for 55 days but it is time for families to return to their homes and await for answers and updates there. The family assistance centre the airline has set up will be closed on May 7.

DCA director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman assures that the five recordings of radio communications between MH370 and air traffic controllers released yesterday are original recordings and had not been edited, contrary to claims of voice experts quoted in an NBC report.

The five recordings are for each of five sets of air traffic controllers that MH370 spoke to on different radio frequencies until contact was lost off the coast of Kota Baru.

Bluefin completes 18th dive, still nothing.

5.18pm: The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) says the autonomous underwater vehicle Bluefin-21 has completed 18 underwater mission, but there is still no trace of the missing plane.

In a statement, it says the Australain defence vessel Ocean Shield is now en-route to Fleet Base West to replenish supplies and personnel, after which it will return to the search site to recommence search with the Bluefin.

JACC further reports that two Royal Australian Navy vessels HMAS Toowoomba and MV Seahorse Standard returned to port while another, HMAS Perth is redeploying to operations in northern Australia.

Malaysian frigate KD Lekiu has also been resupplying in port while supply vessel Bunga Mas is remaining in the search area with a number of Chinese vessels.

“The last of the air search fleet, the two Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft, are due to depart Perth International Airport tomorrow. One RAAF AP-3C Orion remains on standby to assist with search operations.”

First funeral for MH370 to be held

5pm: Reuters reports that Australia will hold the first funeral service for passengers of MH370 this weekend.

It reports that according to a statement on behalf of the family released by police, family and friends of Rod and Mary Burrows, two of six Australians on board the flight, will be holding a formal memorial in Brisbane on Sunday.

Read full Reuters report here .

Families to MAS: Where are we to go?

4.20pm: Relatives of Chinese passengers aboard MH370 “wailed and yelled” in response to MAS’ announcement that it would close the family assistance centres that it had set up, according to CNN .

“They are very distraught, because the average Chinese family member will be sent home to mostly a very rural place with limited access to (the) Internet, and they just feel like all lines of communications will be cut,” explains Sarah Bajc to the broadcaster.

Bajc’s partner Philip Wood is among the passengers on the aircraft, and is in Lido Hotel, Beijing, where hundreds of other relatives gathered for their regular briefings since March.

Meanwhile on the Chinese Twitter -like microblogging service Sina Weibo , the MH370 Family Committee wrote, “The families are helpless in face of such a sudden and irresponsible announcement.

“Many families suddenly have no home, where are the old folks and outstation families supposed to go? Where is the plane? Where are our relatives?” it says.

Union blasts MAS handling of MH370 crisis

4pm: The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) complains that Malaysia Airlines (MAS) had been slow in responding to the MH370 issue and to the families of crew member who were on board the missing plane.

“The families felt the MH370 incident was a total make over,” the union today says in a statement.

The union even staged a protest against MAS yesterday in conjunction with Labour Day in from of MAS’ building in Subang, and its participants included Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin, senator Syed Shahrir Syed Mohamud, and families members of MH370’s cabin crew.

They also riled against the airline’s sacking of Ismail, its persecution of other Nufam office bearers, and the sacking of four crew members for sending the union’s memorandum to the government.

We should've been briefed, say crew's families

3pm: According to The Star , family members of MH370’s crew are unhappy that they were not first briefed on the preliminary report Malaysia sent to the nternational Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) before it was made public last night.

Nurlaila Ngah, whose husband was on the missing aircraft, also complains that MAS had initially deposited her husband’s pay into his bank account, preventing her from accessing the money, that is until the airline eventually started issuing cheques.

Meanwhile, the next-of-kin of other crew members complain that MAS have yet to approach them on the issue of financial settlement.

However yesterday, MAS announced it will be making advanced compensation payments to nominated next-of-kin who are entitled to claim compensation.

Hisham off to Australia, will meet with China

12.45pm: Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein leads today’s press briefing on the status of the ongoing search for MAS Flight MH370 at the Royale Chulan Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

He is joined by Joint Agency Coordination Centre Chief Coordinator Angus Houston and French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) president Mr Jean-Paul Troadec, who previously headed the Air France 447 investigation team.

Here are some of the highlights:

Hishammuddin to depart for Canberra, Australia on Sunday. There, Malaysia, China, and Australia will hold a trilateral meeting on Monday to formalise future efforts in relation to the MH370 incident, including the provision of more search assets, engagement with families, and technical advice.
Houston says three ships from the Bangladeshi Navy are in the Bay of Bengal investigating the Australian exploration company GeoResonance’s claims that it had detected a possible wreckage there, but have found nothing so far.
Hishammuddin is trying to arrange for oil company SapuraKencana to search the area as well, but adds: “By doing that, we are distracting ourselves from the main search. In the event that the result of the search is negative, who is responsible for the loss of time?”
Houston remains confident that MH370 is somewhere in the 400-by-70-kilometre arc off the coast of Australia because that is where the evidence points to, despite nothing having been found yet apart from initial transmissions consistent with black box pingers.
He hopes that the Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) can find signs of wreckage by the end of the month, but its chances have now diminished compared to when the underwater search began. It has scanned 500 square kilometres of ocean floor so far.
When asked about Malaysia's preliminary report on MH370 to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and how much attention would be given to past mistakes, Houston says attention should be given, "wholly and solely" to the search efforts to find out what happened to the missing aircraft.
He estimates search could take as long as eight to 12 months to complete.
Troadec says some airlines have voluntarily adopted the BEA’s recommendation to install 90-day batteries on black box pingers, although the regulations enforcing this won’t come into effect for some years. He suggests other airlines do the same.

The current regulations require 30-day batteries.

Hisham, Houston to hold press conference

11.21am: Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein is to hold a press conference at noon.

He will be joined by Joint Agency Coordination Centre Chief Coordinator Angus Houston and French Aviation Accident Investigation Bureau president Mr Jean-Paul Troadec, who previously headed the Air France 447 investigation team.

This follows last night's release of Malaysia's preliminary report on MH370's disappearance, audio recordings of the communication between the cockpit and air traffic control on March 8 just before the aircraft lost contact, a map of a number of possible flight paths , as well as plane’s seating plan and cargo manifest .

Hishammuddin will also be holding another press briefing at 5pm.

Boeing supports enhancement of global aircraft tracking

9.30am: Aircraft manufacturer Boeing says it would “participate in and support the effort to find effective and efficient ways to enhance global tracking of airplanes,” in a statement yesterday.

Malaysia, in the preliminary report sent to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), released to the public last night, recommended ICAO study the safety benefits of making it a standard to track commercial aircraft in real time , following MH370’s disappearance.

France had made a call to ICAO for similar studies in 2009, after the disappearance of Air France Flight 447 over the Atlantic Ocean in its second interim report on the incident.

Its third interim report in 2011 after the aircraft was found was more strongly worded, saying that its own studies has found it to be feasible for an aircraft to automatically detect an emergency and begin transmitting flight data and triggering emergency locator beacons even before a crash – hence narrowing the subsequent search area to under five kilometres.

It urged European authorities and ICAO to “make (this triggered transmission) mandatory as quickly as possible” on aircraft flying over maritime and remote areas.

ICAO is due to hold a special meeting on global aircraft tracking on May 12 – 13, which is convened in response to MH370’s disappearance.

Military data to be reviewed

9.20am: Aviation experts and investigators, including the international team now based in Kuala Lumpur, will be holding a private meeting in the Australian capital of Canberra next week, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday.

Quoting anonymous sources, the group will reportedly review military radar data and other information to help determine where MH370 might have crashed, and then present a report to civilian contractors who may take over the search in the coming weeks.

The civilian contractors would want to reanalyse existing data, the report quotes Australian Defence Minister David Johnston ( left ) as saying, but some radar data would be considered too sensitive to be handed over to them.

The report also claims Malaysia had managed to broker an agreement with neighbouring countries to share military radar data with US air crash investigators, which in turn allowed Boeing to determine that MH370 had been flying faster than its optimum cruising speed, and hence would have crashed earlier than thought.

The agreement was reached soon after the investigations team was assembled on March 24, the report says.

Background:

The Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200ER aircraft went missing not long after taking off from KL International Airport in the early hours of March 8, with 12 crew members and 227 passengers.
Authorities have determined that the plane intentionally turned back and altered its course shortly after cutting communications with tower controllers for unknown reasons and, based on satellite data,its last estimated position was the south Indian Ocean.
Australia leads the search in the south Indian Ocean. As of March 30, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) is tasked with overseeing the operations, led by retired air marshal and former defence chief, Angus Houston.
The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 was deployed on April 14 to conduct an undersea search where the Australia Defence Vessel Ocean Shield had picked up two pings similar to black boxes on April 5 and two more on April 8 but failed to reacquire them again with the pinger locator.
However, after 52 days with no sign of the wreckage, authorities announced that the search will move on to the next phase, focusing on a larger and deeper area of the sea floor, while the aerial search will cease as it is highly unlikely any floating debris will be found at this stage.