Voice 370 calls for wider base of funding
Print Edition
THE more than two-year hunt for a missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft will be suspended once the current search area in the Indian Ocean has been completely scoured, the three countries conducting the operation announced yesterday.
But China will not give up hope in finding the whereabouts of Flight MH370, a Chinese official said.
“Suspension does not mean a termination of the search work. In the future, should key information leading to the location of the aircraft emerges, it will be assessed to determine our next steps,” China’s Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang told reporters.
Yang said China is willing to extend the operation time of the sonar ship Dong Hai Jiu 101 after it offered A$20 million (US$15 million) last year to help maintain the search. “Currently, the crew of Dong Hai Jiu 101 is still on the search mission in the Indian Ocean.”
Some families of the lost plane’s 239 passengers and crew were angry over the decision to stop what is already the most expensive search in aviation history, having cost A$180 million. Others continued to hold out hope.
“In the absence of new evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively decided to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000-square-kilometer search area,” Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said after a meeting with his Australian and Chinese counterparts.
There are fewer than 10,000 square kilometers left to be searched. In a statement read by Liow, the ministers acknowledged “the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading.”
The ministers said the search could be revived, but only if new evidence emerges.
“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,” their joint statement said.
As Liow and the other two ministers were addressing the news conference, representatives of the passengers’ families stood outside the building holding placards calling on authorities to keep trying. “Find the plane, ease our pain,” read one.
Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said experts will continue to analyze data and inspect debris but added: “Future searches must have a high level of success to justify raising hopes of loved ones.”
The Boeing 777 vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It is believed to have turned back west and then south before dropping into the Indian Ocean west of Australia, where the search has been concentrated. Much of what happened to the plane remains a mystery, though the Malaysian government has concluded it was deliberately steered off course.
Liow said the search, hampered by bad weather and damaged equipment, will end by December.
Confirmed and possible debris has been found off East Africa thousands of kilometers away, but authorities have said the wreckage has provided no information that might help locate the bulk of the aircraft.
Some relatives remained hopeful that the search will resume one day.
“I feel encouraged. Fearing the worst, we now have something to hang on to,” said K.S. Narenderan, who lost his wife, Chandrika Sharma, on the flight. “I read into it a commitment to stay engaged in the search and to hold themselves accountable to pursue the truth.”
“You can suspend, but don’t stop there,” said Jacquita Gonzales, whose husband Patrick Gomes was a crew member on the flight.
“Suspension can be five years, 15 years, 20 years ... It’s a long wait, so go back to the drawing board.”
Representatives from Voice 370, a group representing family members of the passengers and crew, met Australian officials in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and urged the governments to suspend the search until new funds can be raised. They also called for a wider base of funding, including from Boeing and other plane and component manufacturers.
The three governments are involved because the airline was Malaysian, most of the passengers were Chinese, and the suspected crash site is off southwest Australia.
Jeanette Maguire, whose sister and brother-in-law Cathy and Bob Lawton, from Brisbane, were on board, said that while the decision is “very difficult to accept,” she understood searchers needed more information to continue, “because it’s costing an absolute fortune.”
There have been several theories surrounding the disappearance and the final hours of the flight, including that the plane glided into the water and didn’t dive in, indicating a controlled ditching.
“We do not have any evidence to confirm that it was controlled ditching,” Liow said.
Western Australia University oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi has said the plane could have crashed slightly north of the current search area.
But the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has said wreckage found on the southwest shores of the Indian Ocean is consistent with the plane crashing in the expansive search area.
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