Search has been suspended as it is \u201cnot the season\u201d, says transport minister more than decade after plane went missing
\n KUALA LUMPUR
\nThe latest search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been suspended as it is \u201cnot the season\u201d, Kuala Lumpur\u2019s transport minister said, more than a decade after the plane went missing.
\n\u201cThey have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the search at the end of this year,\u201d Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a voice recording sent to AFP on Thursday by his aide.
\n\u201cRight now, it\u2019s not the season,\u201d Loke said in the recording, which was made during an event at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday.
\nThe Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
\nDespite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has not been found.
\nLoke\u00b4s comments come a little over a month after authorities said the search had resumed, following earlier failed attempts that covered vast swaths of the Indian Ocean.
\nAn initial Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometres (46,300 square miles) in the Indian Ocean over three years, but found hardly any trace of the plane other than a few pieces of debris.
\nMaritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year.
\n\u201cWhether or not it will be found will be subject to the search, nobody can anticipate,\u201d Loke said, referring to the wreckage of the plane.
\nAviation mystery
\nLoke said in December that a new 15,000 square kilometre area of the southern Indian Ocean would be scoured by Ocean Infinity.
\nThe most recent mission was conducted on the same \u201cno find, no fee\u201d principle as Ocean Infinity\u2019s previous search, with the government only paying out if the firm finds the aircraft.
\nThe plane\u2019s disappearance has long been the subject of theories \u2014 ranging from the credible to outlandish \u2014Search including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue.
\nA final report into the tragedy released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.
\nInvestigators said in the 495-page report that they still did not know why the plane vanished, and refused to rule out that someone other than the pilots had diverted the jet.
\nTwo-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others were from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, and elsewhere.
\nRelatives of passengers lost on the flight have continued to demand answers from Malaysian authorities.
\nFamily members of Chinese passengers gathered in Beijing outside government offices and the Malaysian embassy last month on the 11th anniversary of the flight\u00b4s disappearance.
\nAttendees of the gathering shouted, \u201cGive us back our loved ones!\u201d
\nSome held placards asking, \u201cWhen will the 11 years of waiting and torment end?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Search has been suspended as it is \u201cnot the season\u201d, says transport minister more than decade after plane went missing KUALA LUMPUR The latest search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been suspended as it is \u201cnot the season\u201d, Kuala Lumpur\u2019s transport minister said, more than a decade after the plane went missing. \u201cThey have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-470428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n