Malaysia Airlines to focus on caring for missing passengers' families

Malaysia Airlines' primary focus at this point is to care for the families of passengers of the missing MH370 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the company said Monday morning in its 9th statement since the weekend disappearance of the passenger jet with 239 people aboard.[Special coverage: Searching for missing MH370]

This means providing them with timely information, travel facilities, accommodation, meals, medical and emotional support. The costs for these are all borne by Malaysia Airlines, said the statement released at 10am Monday morning, or 0200 GMT.

At least one caregiver is assigned to each family. These caregivers are well-trained staff and volunteers from Malaysia and other organizations, the company said in the statement.

Malaysia Airlines said that it has been actively cooperating with the search and rescue authorities coordinated by the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia (DCA), but so far no positive finding has been established on the whereabouts of the aircraft.

DCA has confirmed that search and rescue teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines and the United States of America have come forward to assist. When the aircraft is located, a Response Coordination Center ( RCC) will be activated within the vicinity to support the needs of the families, the statement said.

The Boeing 777-200 aircraft operated by Malaysia Airlines left Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing at 00:41am Saturday, and lost contact with Subang Air Traffic Control at around 1:30am Saturday. The aircraft was carrying 12 crew members and 227 passengers including 154 Chinese. There has been no confirmed information about the fate of the plane yet.