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Home International News Hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is called off
International News
January 17, 2017

Hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is called off

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Flight officer Rayan Gharazeddine looks out of a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) AP-3C Orion as it flies over the southern Indian Ocean during the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 March 22, 2014. REUTERS/Rob Griffith/Pool/File Photo - RTSIYV7

Flight officer Rayan Gharazeddine looks out of a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) AP-3C Orion as it flies over the southern Indian Ocean during the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 REUTERS/Rob Griffith/Pool/File Photo – RTSIYV7

THE search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been called off, nearly three years after the plane disappeared with more than 200 people on board.

Crews have finished their deep-sea search of a stretch of the Indian Ocean without finding a single trace of the Boeing 777, which was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014 when it disappeared.

There were 239 people on board, including 12 members of crew. Most of the passengers were from China.

The Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre said the search had been officially suspended after crews finished their fruitless search of the 46,000-square mile search zone west of Australia.

The end of the hunt raises the prospect that the world’s greatest aviation mystery may never be solved.

In July 2015 part of the aeroplane’s wing was found on Reunion Island.

Debris believed to be from the aircraft has also washed ashore in Mauritius, Mozambique, Madagascar and Tanzania.

However, very little of the plane has been found and investigators are still no closer to understanding what happened to it.

The part of wing of MH370 found on Reunion Island in 2015Part of the wing of MH370 was found on Reunion Island in 2015

In a joint statement the transport ministers of Malaysia, Australia and China said: “Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modelling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft.

“Accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended. The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness.”

The families of those on board have expressed their dismay at the decision, and called on the authorities to reconsider.

They also want the search area to be extended to a new area identified in a recent analysis as a possible crash site.

A person involved in the search points to a section of the screen showing a part of the southern Indian Ocean
Thousands of miles of the southern Indian Ocean has been searched

But the Australian government has always rejected this idea.

Last year, Australia, Malaysia and China – which have helped fund the search – agreed the hunt would be suspended once the search zone was exhausted unless new evidence emerged that pinpointed MH370’s specific location.

Because no technology exists that can tell investigators exactly where the jet is, this effectively means the most expensive, complex search in aviation history is over. sky.new.com