Aviation authority to follow investigation

The Chinese aviation authority will continue following the investigation of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, whose disappearance has been declared an accident, an official from the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Thursday.

"Our investigators will still follow the issue, as the Malaysia government said it will forge ahead with cooperation and assistance from other governments, including China," said Mao Yanfeng, director of the accident investigation department of the CAAC's Aviation Safety Office.

The Chinese authority sent investigators to the location where the aircraft was believed to have disappeared as soon as the air-craft vanished, he said.

Mao said Flight MH370 is not typical of missing air-craft. It is rare that an investigation has not found any wreckage or bodies a year after an incident.

Although the reason for the accident has not been established, the Chinese authority will require Chinese carriers to comply with rules and regulations more stringently, he said.

All sides - airlines, air traffic control and aviation authorities - must pay more attention to the safe flying of aircraft, he added. The global aviation industry has already introduced improvements in aircraft manufacture and procedures.

The European Aviation Safety Agency plans to prolong the recording time on cockpit voice recorders from two hours to 20 hours after the Flight MH370 disappearance.

EASA also proposed to extend black boxes' battery life from 30 days to 90 days by 2018.

Additionally, Dong Nianqing, a professor at the Civil Aviation Management Institute of China, said, "It is a global issue to make improvements in aircraft design to increase air worthiness."

Dong said it is reasonable for the Malaysian government to declare the disappearance of Flight MH370 to have been an accident, since the plane has been missing for such a long time, and based on the Chicago Convention's Annex 13. The convention states that a flight can be declared an accident if three situations apply - passengers are killed, the airplane is severely damaged or the airplane is missing.