In a significant development, the Malaysian authorities officially declared that the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 was an "accident." A statement issued by the country's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) said that it can now be presumed that all the 239 passengers of the ill-fated aircraft are dead.

The Boeing 777 disappeared mysteriously during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

IB Times quotes Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's civil aviation chief, saying that the statement was issued with a view to clear compensation claims for the passengers' next-of-kin. At the same time, he emphasized that the search for the missing plane "remains a priority."

The Malaysian authorities concluded that on the basis of radar data and the satellite communication (SATCOM) system analysis, Flight MH370 had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean. They further said that available data shows that the jet had used up its fuel along the seventh arc, which was earlier described as "a thin but long line that includes all the possible points where the last known communication between the aircraft and the communication satellite could have taken place."

The report also quotes Azharuddin saying that Malaysia, China, and Australia had gone all out and spared no expense and resources available in their possession to search the missing aircraft. After a four-month hiatus, the search operations resumed in October 2014 and now involve four vessels combing the sea floor. Unfortunately, the search operation has failed to uncover any concrete clues regarding the plane's whereabouts. In fact, the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 has turned out to be most expensive in aviation history.

Azharuddin said, "At this juncture, there is no evidence to substantiate any speculations as to the cause of the accident." He added that an interim report regarding the progress of the investigation is likely to be released in March 2015.