Indian family mourns death of kin in Malaysian plane crash

A family in India is unable to come to terms with the loss of one of its members in a Malaysian plane that crashed with 239 people on board nearly a fortnight ago.

Citing groundbreaking satellite-data analysis by the British company Inmarsat, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Monday said that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished more than a fortnight ago while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, had crashed thousands of miles away in the Indian Ocean.

Prahalad Sirsath, husband of one of the dead passengers, Kranti Sirsath, said the demise of his spouse was an irreparable loss.

"Even today my sons and I are unable to believe that a Boeing plane could go missing in this world when technology has advanced, and there is round the clock surveillance and monitoring," he said.

All 239 people on board were presumed dead, airline officials said on Monday.

Rear Admiral (retired), K. Raja Menon, said that the theory of the plane crash was based on the process of elimination.

"They have not seen it going into the sea nor have they picked pieces of the plane yet. But they think that after so many days there is no chance of the plane having reach land anywhere. So it must have gone into the sea," Menon said.

Najib's statement may go some way toward tamping down some of the more fevered speculation about the plane's fate, including one theory some grief-stricken relatives had seized on: that the plane had been hijacked and forced to land somewhere.

The launch of an official air crash investigation would give Malaysia power to coordinate and sift evidence, but it may still face critics, especially China, which had more than 150 citizens on board the missing plane and has criticised Malaysia over the progress of the search.

The data showed the Boeing (BA.N) 777's last position was in the Indian Ocean west of Perth, Australia, Najib said in a statement.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng immediately demanded all relevant satellite-data analysis from Malaysia that demonstrated how Malaysia had reached its conclusion about the fate of the jet.