Malaysia Airlines families told to leave hotels
Malaysia Airlines is telling relatives of passengers on Flight 370 they should move out of hotels and return home to wait for news on the search for the plane.
Since the plane disappeared March 8, the airline has been putting the relatives up in hotels, where they have been briefed on the search.
But it said in a statement the families should now receive the information from “the comfort of their own homes”.
The airline said it would close its family assistance centres around the world by May 7, but will establish support centres in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.
It said it would keep in close touch with the relatives through means including phone calls and meetings.
Malaysia Airlines also said it would soon make advance compensation payments to relatives.
The Boeing 777 vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, and most of the passengers were Chinese.
No wreckage from the plane has been found and an aerial search for surface debris ended on Monday after six weeks of fruitless hunting.
An unmanned sub is continuing to search underwater in an area of the southern Indian Ocean where sounds consistent with a plane’s black box were detected in early April.
Additional equipment is expected to be brought in within the next few weeks to scour an expanded underwater area.
The head of the search effort has predicted that it could drag on for as long as a year.
