Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell yesterday expressed profound sadness over the loss of all those on board Malaysian Air flight MH370.

After a vigorous two week search for the ill-fated flight, Malaysian’s Prime Minister Najib Razab painfully announced during a late night press conference Monday that the Boeing 777 had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

This, he said, was the conclusion of fresh analysis of satellite data tracking the flight.

Flight MH370 disappeared after taking off on 8 March from Kuala Lumpur. It was en route to Beijing.

Some 239 people were on board; many of them Chinese.

In its wake, a widespread international search took place in the southern Indian Ocean.

International reports indicate that relatives of those on board who watched Prime Minister Razab’s announcement at a Beijing hotel wept with grief, and some were taken away on stretchers.

“Our missions abroad have been asked to communicate the messages to the various governments. Mr. Mitchell has spoken with the Chinese and American government’s representatives here in Nassau,” a release noted yesterday.

“Our ambassador in Havana has been tasked with communicating the message to the Ambassador for Malaysia to The Bahamas who is resident in Havana…Our country joins in collective prayers for the repose of all the souls who perished in this tragedy.”