Relatives of the 239 passengers and crew on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be issued with death certificates by the Malaysian Government.
This will allow families to claim financial aid - as well as the chance to file any potential lawsuits against the airline.
The news has reportedly been met with mixed emotions, with many relatives of passengers onboard the ill-fated jet unable to let go of their hopes that those on board MH370 could still be alive.
Hamid Ramlan, whose daughter and son-in-law were on board the flight, told CNN that his wife, for one, is unwilling to accept that she will never see her daughter again.
He said: "She still believes that the plane was hijacked and she believes that my daughter is still alive.
The flight with 239 people onboard vanished while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, and is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean.
Earlier, the US Navy's Bluefin-21 underwater drone searched about two-thirds of the focused underwater search area for the lost MH370 plane in the Indian Ocean but with no significant results.
Relatives of people aboard the jetliner have drawn up 26 questions that they want addressed by Malaysian officials, who are to meet with them next week in Beijing. Most of the Flight 370 passengers were Chinese.
Among them: What's in the flight's log book? Can they review the jet's maintenance records? Can they listen to recordings of the Boeing 777 pilot's conversations with air traffic controllers just before contact was lost?
Hishammuddin has defended his government's handling of the operation and accused members of the media of focusing on the Chinese families. He said relatives of passengers and crew from other nations represented have not had problems.
"The most difficult part of any investigation of this nature is having to deal with the families," he said.