KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 6): Families of the 154 Chinese passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared on March 8, 2014, said the search for missing Boeing 777 should be broadened.

In a statement today, the families said they were still hopeful that those on board the aircraft might be alive and being held at an undisclosed location.

“In the absence of proof to the contrary, we believe it is possible the missing may still be alive.

“If this is so, we would willingly grant to the perpetrators amnesty in return for the release of the missing,” they said.

The statement was also sent to Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and United States, whose nationals were on board MH370.

The families said they did not trust the official account of the incident.

“We do not believe any of the series of official statements starting from March 24, 2014, up to and including that of Sept 3, 2015.

“There is no real proof justifying any of these statements,” they said.

On Jan 29, 2015, director-general of the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said MH370 was declared an “accident” under international aviation regulations, and all 239 passengers and crew members on board the flight were presumed dead.

The Boeing 777 aircraft took off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.40am on March 8, 2014, headed for Beijing.

An hour later, the plane disappeared from radar and was believed to have ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

On July 29 last year, a wing component, known as the “flaperon”, was discovered on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

The search for the aircraft continues in the Southern Indian Ocean.