BEIJING: China has demanded that Malaysia hand over the satellite data, which led to its judgement Monday that missing flight MH370, crashed at sea and that none on board survived.
Prime Minister Najib Razak told relatives Monday that the flight "ended in the southern Indian Ocean" after new analysis of satellite data on the airliner's path placed its last position in remote waters off Australia's west coast.
In a meeting late Monday, Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng asked Malaysia's Ambassador to China, Iskandar Bin Sarudin, to provide the "detailed evidence" that led to the conclusion, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
"We demand the Malaysian side to state the detailed evidence that leads them to this judgement as well as supply all the relevant information and evidence about the satellite data analysis," Xie said, according to a statement on the ministry's website.
"The search and rescue work cannot stop now, we demand the Malaysian side to continue to finish all the work including search and rescue," Xie said on Tuesday.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing on March 8 with 239 people aboard - two thirds of them Chinese - en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Chinese maritime authorities said late Monday China would send more vessels to the southern Indian Ocean to search for wreckage, Xinhua news agency reported.
They add to the six Chinese vessels already dispatched to the search area to scour the seas for the missing plane. - AFP
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