By P. Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
Malaysia’s former acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, has volunteered to continue handling the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370.
Hishammuddin, who was removed in a minor cabinet reshuffle to concentrate on his defense portfolio, told the Anadolu Agency on Thursday that the missing Malaysian Airlines flight's case cannot easily be handed over to a new minister.
"Like what I have said before, I was ready from day one to give this ministry to someone else because I was only the acting minister,” he said. “But the MH370 case is not something that revolves around a ministry, it involves the nation."
Hishammuddin said he had forwarded a request to Prime Minister Najib Razak to continue handling the issue.
"My face is synonymous with MH370 in the eyes of the world," he added. "I’m sure that I can handle my own ministry as well as the MH370 case, if asked to."
In the minor cabinet shake-up, PM Najib had named Liow Tiong Lai, president of the Malaysian Chinese Association party, as the new transport minister.
Meanwhile, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Thursday at a press conference in Canberra that flight MH370 was most probably on autopilot mode during its journey to the south Indian Ocean, resulting in it running out of fuel before potentially crashing.
"Otherwise it could not have followed the orderly path that has been identified through the satellite sightings," Truss added, announcing that the search area will shift further south to cover a 60,000 square kilometer area.
It has been more than three months since the Beijing-bound flight has disappeared after leaving the Malaysian airspace from the KL International Airport on March 8.
A total of 239 people of various nationalities were on board the flight, including 12 crew members and 153 Chinese citizens.
Despite the most intensive search in commercial aviation history, Malaysia's efforts have been heavily criticized by media and the family of passengers.
Australia has committed up to $84 million towards the search for the missing aircraft over two years, but Malaysia has said the amount is purely a "ceiling price."
www.aa.com.tr/en
