Malaysian Airlines MH370 disappearance declared an accident

The Chairman of the MH370 high level taskforce, in charge of the search for the missing plane, has declared that it was an "accident".

Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said that "every credible lead" and "all available data" had been examined but the location of the plane was still unknown.

He quoted the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, a document which establishes the rules of airspace and air travel, to demonstrate that it could now be classified as an "accident".