AFTER nearly three years, the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 ended in futility and frustration, as crews completed their deep-sea search of a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean without finding a trace of the plane.
The Joint Agency Coordination Center in Australia, which has helped lead the $160 million hunt for the Boeing 777 in remote waters west of Australia, said the search had officially been suspended after crews finished their fruitless sweep of the 120,000-square kilometre search zone.
“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 agency said in a statement, which was a joint communique between the transport ministers of Malaysia, Australia and China.
“Accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended. The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness.”
Officials investigating the plane’s disappearance have recommended search crews head north to a new area identified in a recent analysis as a possible crash site.
But the Australian government has already nixed that idea.
The husband of a victim of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 says it’s “mind-boggling” that Australia won’t search an area north of the existing search zone where experts recently concluded the plane likely crashed
Chandrika Sharma was one of the 239 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 when it crashed in March 2014. Her husband, K.S. Narendran, and other relatives of victims say they’re dismayed by Tuesday’s suspension of the search for the plane.
Narendran says the families involved expect to one day get a “credible explanation to what has happened,” even if they never see their loved ones again.
Without an explanation, Narendan says he feels there’s a “good chance that this could happen in the future.”
Last year, Australia, Malaysia and China - which have each helped fund the search - agreed that the hunt would be suspended once the search zone was exhausted unless new evidence emerges that pinpoints the plane’s specific location.
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Wonder if we'll ever find out what happened to that plane?
