The Malaysian government has promised relatives of flight MH370 passengers the search for the missing plane will not be abandoned on the first anniversary of its disappearance.

Today marks one year since the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared from radar screens, with an international team expected to release a report on the plane’s change of trajectory towards the southern Indian Ocean.

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The milestone is a painful one for the families of the missing passengers.

“This year is very important for us. Because of the pain, suffering and torture,” Kelly Wen, one passenger’s wife, said.

“I don’t know how to describe it.”

Liu Jiuying, the sister of one of passengers, said she did not know how to cope.

“We haven’t told my mother. We’re lying to her,” she said.

On March 8, 2014, the Malaysia Airlines flight set off on its doomed journey from Kuala Lumpur with 239 passengers and crew on board, including six Australians.

Two-thirds of those on board the flight were Chinese, and in Kuala Lumpur their families gathered to demand answers.

“We hope the Malaysian government will meet us instead of avoiding us. I don’t know why they are doing that,” Ms Wen said.

Twelve months on and millions of dollars later, the search on the ocean floor continues but not a single piece of the plane has been found.

‘We will continue to be committed to the search’

Malaysian transport minister Liow Tong Lai said Saturday his government remained committed to the search but added it remained unclear what the next steps would be if the deep-sea search currently underway found nothing.

“The people of Malaysia remember this date. The world community will remember this date – the March 8 disappearance of MH370 – and we are together with the next of kin,” he said.

“I would like to say to the next of kin that we will continue to be committed to the search.”

But Mr Liow said if nothing was found in the zone currently being scoured, the team would “have to go back to the drawing board”.

He said they would re-examine all available data used to determine a suspected crash zone.

“We need the experts to advise us how to move forward,” Mr Liow said.

Mr Liow’s comments echoed comments made recently by Prime Minister Tony Abbott who raised doubts about an open-ended search for the aircraft.

On Thursday, Mr Abbott said while he was committed to the current operation he “can’t promise that the search will go on at this intensity forever”.

Four ships involved in the Australian-led search are now using sophisticated sonar systems to scour a huge and previously unmapped undersea region.

They are focusing on a 60,000-square-kilometre priority zone, with the search expected to be completed in May.

More than 40 per cent of the zone has been scanned, with nothing detected on the seafloor aside from a few sunken shipping containers.

Many next of kin have been deeply critical of Malaysia’s initial response to the crisis, saying that opportunities to intercept or track the plane were lost.

Report expected to shed light on plane’s movements

An international team is expected to release a report today that will consider why the plane abandoned its northern trajectory and doubled back towards the southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysia transport minister Liow Tiong Lai. Photo: AFP

He said the government “will take appropriate actions if necessary” based on the report’s findings, but declined to speculate on its contents.

But he denied accusations by some family members that Malaysia’s government and national airline had not been transparent, saying authorities had regularly shared all that they know.

“We are very transparent in this. I would like to emphasis that,” Mr Liow said.

“I have told the next of kin: they are seeking for answers? I also am seeking for answers. I am committed to look for the answers for them.”

Families were again angered by the authorities’ handling of the disaster when on January 30 Malaysia declared all on board to be presumed dead.

The government said the move would allow relatives to seek compensation and otherwise move forward, but next of kin said the declaration could not be made without proof of a crash.

Malaysia’s government has announced no plans to mark the anniversary on Sunday.

Malaysia Airlines will hold a private ceremony for staff and the next of kin of the flight crew at their headquarters.

A separate public event is to be held at a venue in Kuala Lumpur, organised by an association of MH370 families.

Mr Liow said he hoped that MH370’s legacy would be safer air travel, noting that the International Civil Aviation Organisation has taken up Malaysia’s calls to increase the tracking of airliners.

Regulators will require real-time tracking of all passenger aircraft beginning next year.

ABC/AFP