Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 search to be ‘suspended’

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be suspended if it’s not located in the current search area.

Transport ministers from three nations have declared the search for Flight MH370 will be suspended

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be suspended if it is not found in the current search area, transport ministers from Malaysia, China and Australia said last night as families of the victims continued to demand answers.

The three ministers met yesterday in Putra­jaya, Malaysia, to discuss progress in what has ­become the most expensive search in aviation history and later issued a joint communique ­acknowledging that “despite the best efforts of all involved, the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading”.

If the plane was not found in the current search area, and in the absence of new credible evidence on its location, the hunt for MH370 “would not end, but be suspended”, the statement said.

MH370 disappeared during a flight from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing in March 2014, carrying 239 passengers and crew.

Almost $180 million has been spent on the Australian-led under­­water search spanning 120,000sq km in the southern ­Indian Ocean, where authorities believe the jet may have gone down. The search was originally scheduled to end last month but has been hampered by bad weather. It is now expected to be completed in a few weeks, with just 10,000sq km of the designated high-priority search area still to be scoured.

Federal Transport Minister Darren Chester said the decision was “not taken lightly, nor without sadness”. “We have been mindful that any future search needs to have a high likelihood of success to justify raising the hopes of family and friends,’’ he said.

“I want to impress upon the families the enormous task that has been undertaken over the last 2½ years and assure them that every effort has been made … We are all on the same team, we all want to find answers to the questions about what happened to MH370 and we all want to ­locate the aircraft.”

Mr Chester said the search had relied on expert analysis, and the decision had been made to search in the “most probable’’ loca­tion for MH370, based on the last satellite communications with the aircraft.

Nothing related to MH370 has been found in the area and all three countries involved have agreed the expensive hi-tech sonar operation far off Western Australia cannot be expanded without credible new evidence pointing to a crash site.

“The suspension does not mean the termination of the search. Ministers reiterated that the aspiration to locate MH370 has not been abandoned,’’ the communique said.

“Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in ­determining next steps.’’

Outside the meeting, families of those on board MH370 held up banners and placards appealing for the search to go on.

Grace Nathan, spokeswoman for the families and whose mother was on the flight, said: “We are very pleased that the search is being suspended and not terminated but disappointed that no ­explanation or clarification was giv­en, no meeting set up with next of kin. Why aren’t we allowed to ask any questions?”

Researchers at the Dutch company Fugro which has been leading the search admitted this week the plane may have glided rather than dived in its final ­moments, meaning they have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean.

Some independent researchers maintain the Australian Transport Safety Board is searching the wrong area.