2 Malaysian officials to be sent to JACC

KUALA LUMPUR (Xinhua) - Malaysian acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said here Saturday that two officials from the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) would be sent to the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) in Australia.

He said the two officials are Noor Izhar Baharin, the principal assistant director of DCA and the office in charge of SAR and Air Safety of the DCA and Muhammad Irfan Ahmad Baidove, the assistant director of the Kuala Lumpur Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre.

"This is important because JACC, as the body responsible for the SAR efforts, must have a direct contact with Kuala Lumpur," he added.

As to a report of Malaysian local newspaper New Straits Times that the co-pilot of MH370 Fariq Abd Hamid made a call from his mobile phone while the plane was flying low over Penang on the day the plane went missing, Hishammuddin said he did not get any report on this.

"If this did happen, they would have known about it earlier," he said.