Malaysian Minister of Defense and acting Minister of Transport Hishammuddin Hussein said here Saturday in a press conference that the Malaysian government had established three ministerial committees to streamline and strengthen their work on the missing plane incident.

The Next of Kin Committee, led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hamzah Zainuddin, would oversee all aspects regarding the next of kin of those on board the missing plane, providing families with information on the search operation, and offering support after the search operation had been concluded, he said.

The committee would also coordinate with relevant foreign governments and complement the work already being done for the families by Malaysia Airlines, he added.

Hishammuddin said that deputy Minister of Transport Abdul Aziz Kaprawi was in charge of the second committee overseeing technicalities, specifically, the formation and the appointment of the investigation team.

He said Abdul Rahim Bakri, the deputy minister of defense, led the third committee which took over issues related to the deployment of assets for the search operation. The committee would also work with foreign counterparts and keep in touch with the Australian Joint Agency Coordination Center, he added.

The minister said Malaysia would continue to lead the investigation into the missing MH370 flight according to the related requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Moreover, he said an independent ' Investigator In Charge' would also be appointed to lead an investigation team.

According to Hishammuddin, the investigation would be composed of three groups: an airworthiness group to look at issues such as maintenance records, structures and systems; an operations group to examine things such as flight recorders, operations and meteorology; and a medical and human factors group to investigate issues such as psychology, pathology and survival factors.

He said except for Australia, they would also include China, the United States, Britain and France as accredited representatives to the investigation team, along with other countries they thought in a position to help.

The minister said during the U.S.-ASEAN Defense Forum, the United States and the ASEAN member countries assured him with their continuing support to the search operation.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Malaysia Airlines Ahmad Jauhari Yahya denied reports that the company had been lax in servicing the batteries of its pingers, saying the batteries of were due for replacement only in June 2014.

When asked by Xinhua about their plan for the arrangements of the families, Yahya said once they had any evidence of the aircraft, they would fly the families to Perth, which was their current arrangement.

Hamzah said they just formed the new Next of Kin Committee, which would look into pre-and-post conclusion operation. "Close cooperation between China and Malaysia is imperative," Hishammuddin added.

Different from the previous statement made by Malaysian Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar that all the passengers on board the missing MH370 flight had been "cleared" of hijacking, sabotage or having psychological or personal problems by the police, Hishammuddin said he did not think anybody had been cleared from any of investigations. Endi

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