Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Malaysian PM Declares Missing Airliner Lost, Surviving Families Respond In Anguish [PHOTOS]

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced on Monday at 10 p.m. local time that new data provided to his government by the United Kingdom’s Accidents Investigation Branch indicated that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 ended somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.

“This is a remote location, 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,” said Razak during the press conference.

Since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, an international search and rescue team had been searching for 16 days with little to show for it. However, since the search for Flight MH370 shifted its attention from the northern Indian Ocean to a patch of the southern Indian Ocean, west of Australia, debris possibly related to the missing plane flight has been discovered by satellites passing over the search area and Australian aircraft flying over designated search corridors.

Moments before Razak’s press conference, Malaysia Airlines also sent out a text message to families of the missing 227 passengers and 12 crew members of Flight MH370.

The premier’s announcement gave no indication of what will happen to current search and rescue operations as a result of this new development. But Razak said that more details will be revealed at a press conference on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, for the families of the missing passengers and crew of Flight MH370, this was not the news they were hoping for. This latest development in the ongoing search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight resulted in sadness and anger from the surviving families, with some even collapsing in anguish from Razak’s announcement.