A family member cries as she and other relatives pray during a candlelight vigil for passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in Beijing
A family member cries as she and other relatives pray during a candlelight vigil for passengers onboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the early morning, at Lido Hotel, in Beijing April 8, 2014, after a month of searching for the missing aircraft. REUTERS/Jason Lee

The families of the missing passengers and crew of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 are relieved to know that the Australian government will continue the search. Australia has recently announced that it will stand by its commitment to continue searching for the missing plane even if one of the airline's directors previously suggested that MH370 will be declared "officially lost" by the end of the year.

The statement of Malaysia Airlines commercial director Hugh Dunleavy has angered the families of those aboard the missing aircraft. Dunleavy has renewed tensions between the airline and the passengers' families when he told New Zealand Herald that the families would be compensated when Malaysia Airlines records the "official loss."

According to the same paper, Australia and Malaysia may possibly declare MH370 "lost" by the end of 2014 which meant an end of to a massive undersea search operation that began after the plane from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board.

In a statement, Malaysia Airlines said the statement of Dunleavy was based on his personal opinion and did not reflect the airline's sentiment. The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) running the MH370 search was only providing official updates. After the uproar over Dunleavy's remark, JACC issued its own statement and reassured families that Australia will continue to search for any sign of the plane and its passengers on behalf of Malaysia.

Meanwhile, it has been eight months since MH370 went missing. Many have speculated on the actual turn of events that led to the plane's disappearance. With the passage of time and search efforts yielding nothing, Emirates Airlines CEO Tim Clarke expressed his frustration over the Australian Transport Safety Board's analyses of the plane's fate.

As reported in the Huffington Post, Clarke said previous experience has shown that when a plane crashes in water, evidence of the aircraft can always be found. In the case of MH370, it was the first time that no sign of the plane or its parts were recovered.

Latest reports of theories as to the plane's whereabouts continue to surface with speculators saying the plane could have crashed further out to sea or about 1,500 miles southwest of Perth. As more resources are allocated for the search, nothing has been found as of late.

On the ATSB Web site, the agency has remained open to the possibility of debris washing up on a faraway beach. The ATSB said it continues to receive messages from the public who have reportedly found material possibly from the missing plane on beaches. The agency continues to review the messages it receives. However, it also referred to the drift modelling conducted by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, indicating that if any debris would float on the surface, it would be found away from Australia's coastline and possibly reach Indonesia.

With each passing day with no trace of the missing plane found, speculators insist that there is great possibility that the plane did not go down into the sea. They believe that if the plane had indeed gone down into the Indian Ocean, pieces of debris would have washed up on a shore somewhere. Reports said families continue to hold on to the hope that they would learn the truth about the fate of MH370 soon enough.