MH370 search hits one year mark

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 hits the one year mark on Sunday as Australian authorities continue to scour thousands of kilometres of ocean for the lost plane.

The flight, from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared from radar over the South China Sea with 239 passengers and crew aboard on March 8, 2014.

Since its disappearance, no firm evidence of the Boeing 777 has turned up, despite an ongoing Australian-led search of the supposed crash region.

Malaysia is expected to release an interim report on its investigation into the disappearance on Saturday.

Deputy transport minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi in late January declined to comment on whether the report would contain any revelations on the fate of the plane.

The report is being compiled and released by the Department of Civil Aviation and is required by the International Civil Aviation Organisation one year after air accidents.

Malaysia launched various investigations into the affair but has so far released no information on any findings.

The search mission, the most expensive of its kind in history, has so far examined 26,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean sea floor southwest of Perth, which authorities say represents about 40 per cent of the search area.

On the eve of the search's one year anniversary, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott this week reassured families of those missing that authorities would find the plane.

"I do reassure the families of our hope and expectation that the ongoing search will succeed," Mr Abbott told parliament on Thursday, as some of the families watched on.

But he said he couldn't promise the search would maintain its intensity in the year to come.

Mr Abbott's comments come as some family members of missing passengers are speaking out about their torment, a year on from MH370's mysterious disappearance.

One of those, Prue Tomblin, the mother of Perth man Paul Weeks, who was on board the flight, said she felt in limbo.

"You just don't know what to feel, what to think. You stumble through the days thinking how can this be possible?" she told the West Australian newspaper on Friday.