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MH370 search called off: Australian, Malaysian and Chinese governments give up search for missing plane

Fergus Hunter

The Australian, Malaysian and Chinese governments have announced the hunt for missing flight MH370 will end immediately, after a two-year search of a 120,000sq km stretch of the Indian Ocean failed to find the plane.

"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," the three governments, who have coordinated the search, said in a joint statement.
 
"Accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended. The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness."

MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Most of the passengers were Chinese or Malaysian and six were Australian.

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Search for MH370 ends

The mission to find the main wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has officially been called off. Vision: Seven News

In December, fresh Australian Transport Safety Bureau analysis – conducted by a panel of international investigators – found the plane likely crashed in a stretch of the Indian Ocean north of the existing search zone.

With a "high degree of confidence" and using newly available information, the panel concluded that the plane would not be found in the 120,000sq km search zone and recommended the search be extended into the new 25,000sq km stretch.

But the Australian government quickly dismissed the idea, saying the three countries leading the $200 million search had agreed to end it unless credible evidence about the "specific location" of the aircraft is found.

On Tuesday afternoon, the three governments reiterated this position.

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"Whilst combined scientific studies have continued to refine areas of probability, to date no new information has been discovered to determine the specific location of the aircraft," they said.

"We remain hopeful that new information will come to light and that at some point in the future the aircraft will be located."

Victims' families were notified before the decision was made public.

Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul was on board the plane, condemned the decision as "unacceptable and disgusting" and vowed to continue lobbying for continued search efforts.

"I was kind of hoping that the announcement was going to be that they would search the 25,000 [sq km], not that the search was going to end," she told Fairfax Media following the announcement.

"I won't accept it. None of us will. They won't get away with this and we'll just keep fighting."

Mrs Weeks said the plane needed to be found not just for the victims' families but for the sake of the aviation industry, in order to address the unanswered questions about how the plane came down.

"I never thought this day was going to come. I hoped it wouldn't happen this way ... It just can't end like this. The Malaysian government promised to bring them home. If they think this will go away, it definitely won't."

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