Relatives of passengers of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, that vanished mysteriously eight-months ago with 239 people on board, have expressed shock after a senior airline official reportedly said that the plane would be declared “lost” by the year end.

The Airlines’ commercial Director Hugh Dunleavy reportedly said that the Malaysian and Australian governments were working together with the national carrier to determine compensation details, adding that the formal announcement of the loss would likely be made by the year end.

“We don’t have a final date but once we’ve had an official loss recorded we can work with the next—of—kin on the full compensation payments for those families,” Dunleavy was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald.

His comments created a furore and Voice370, an association of relatives of passengers of the missing flight, questioned the speculative statement and the official’s intention behind doing so.

“The official channels of information for the group are the MAS Family Support Centre (FSC) and the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC). Therefore, what is the agenda behind such an astounding statement?” Voice370, said in a statement.

Malaysia Airlines, however, has distanced itself from the controversial statement, saying it was Dunleavy’s personal opinion and “the ongoing search and recovery operations will remain and will not be discontinued“.

“Any information regarding MH370, the operations and any matters related to the missing aircraft will only be communicated by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC),” the statement added.

Despite the biggest and costliest search and rescue operation mounted in the aviation history, authorities have not been able to trace the missing flight that went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board including 13 crew members.

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