Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 search to end in two weeks

The hunt for missing flight MH370 will end in two weeks, Malaysia’s transport minister said yesterday.

Australian Transport Safety Board officials inspect a large piece of debris from MH370, which was found in Tanzania.

The hunt for missing flight MH370 will end in two weeks, Malaysia’s Transport Minister said yesterday, as ­relatives of passengers demanded authorities push on with the search.

“We’re at the final lap within these two weeks,” the minister, Liow Tiong Lai, said. “We hope we can find the plane.”

Mr Liow did not specify a date but said that a tripartite meeting would be held after a final report is released once the 120,000sqkm search ended.

Authorities had previously said the search would end early this year. The final search vessel ­embarked on its last sweep across the southern Indian Ocean in December.

The Malaysian Airlines jet disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 passengers and crew.

It is believed the aircraft crashed into the Indian Ocean, but an ­extensive hunt in the ocean off ­Australia’s west coast has failed to find any debris that is unquestionably from MH370.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which has been leading the search mission, said in a report last month that the Boeing jet is almost certainly not in the current search zone and might be further north.

The report was based on a ­review of evidence by Australian and international experts.

Australia has said it did not view the report findings as credible. The governments of Australia, Malaysia and China, where most of the passengers were from, previously agreed to pull the plug on the operation once the current search area was fully scoured unless “credible new information” emerged.

“We cannot just base (a search) on assumptions. We need credible clues to look for the plane,” said Mr Liow when asked about the possibility of a search further north.

AFP