Search suspended but future hunt for missing plane not ruled out

Search suspended but future hunt for missing plane not ruled out

Search suspended but future hunt for missing plane not ruled out:- Officials involved in the arduous search for Malayasia Airlines Flight 370 won’t rule out another hunt for the plane if “credible” evidence emerges, Australia’s transport minister said Wednesday.

“It’s not a closed book by any stretch,” Darren Chester said at a news briefing in Melbourne. “I don’t rule out a future underwater search.”
“It’s a question of if you have credible new information, which leads to a specific location.”

Australian, China and Malaysia announced the suspension of the the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 nearly three years after the plane vanished without a trace over the Indian Ocean.

Officials from those nations had been leading the search for MH370, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board. The countries on Tuesday issued a joint statement announcing the suspension.

“The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness,” the statement said. “Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modeling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft.”

At the news conference, Chester was asked what “credible evidence” would be.

“We’ll know it when we see it,” he said.

He’s hoping that new technologies, improved analysis of data, and better equipment would lead to solving what he calls an “extraordinary aviation mystery.
“I am hopeful we’ll have a breakthrough in the future,” he said. “It’s reasonable to expect there may be more debris uncovered in the weeks and months and possibly even years ahead which could lead to further information in solving this puzzle.”

Chester said the cost hadn’t been the “deciding factor” in the decision to suspen.

“There’s no question this has been a very costly exercise — in the order of 200 million Australian dollars has been spent on the underwater search effort of which 60 million dollars has been provided by the Australian government, and the Malaysian government has contributed more than anyone else in that regard,” he said.

“So it has been a costly exercise but it hasn’t been the factor which has led to the decisions to suspend the search. We are in a position where we don’t want to provide false hope to families and friends.”

He stressed that there has been a “very limited amount of actual data that experts were dealing with.”

“The fact that we haven’t located the aircraft in the 120,000-squar-kilometer highest probability search area would indicate the aircraft is not in that area.”

Greg Hood, chief commissioner for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, told reporters that “residual search-related activity is continuing” until February.

He said the ATSB would continue to analyze satellite imagery for any signs of MH370 as well as any debris that may be linked to the missing plane.

Voice370, a support group for family members of those aboard the flight, released a statement expressing disappointment over the suspension.

“Commercial planes cannot just be allowed to disappear without a trace,” the statement said.

“Stopping at this stage is nothing short of irresponsible, and betrays a shocking lack of faith in the data, tools and recommendations of an array of official experts assembled by the authorities themselves.”

RELATED: Timeline of MH370 disappearance

Steve Wang, whose mother was on board the flight, told CNN he was disappointed the search had ended with few, if any, answers.

“They said they are quite sure that they are searching the right place, but it seems that they are wrong,” he said.

“I think it is their responsibility, not only for the 239 passengers on the plane, or for the next of kin like us, but also they have to give an answer to the whole world … what really happened to MH370.”

Chester said members of families he spoke to “in the last 24 hours” had been “very understanding of the decision that has been reached by the three governments” during their “emotional time.”

“Some were aware that we were approaching the completion of the priority search area (and) they were very thankful to the ATSB and the experts and the searchers for the work they’ve done. They were very appreciative of the Australian government’s effort and understood the decision.”

Multiple family members of those who were on the plane told CNN they received a text message from Malaysia Airlines informing them about a briefing in Beijing at 9 a.m. local time.

In a statement, the airline said it “stands guided” by the decision to suspend the search, which it described as a “thorough and comprehensive effort.”
The company shares “in the sorrow” that the search was not successful, the statement said.

The plane’s disappearance remains one of the greatest aviation mysteries in modern history.

Searchers spent millions of dollars scouring tens of thousands of square miles, but so far have yielded little new information about the plane’s final moments.
In July last year, Australia, China and Malaysia agreed that if the aircraft was not located by the time 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) had been covered, the search would be suspended.

“The decision came not lightly,” Chester said at the time. “But in the absence of new credible evidence it is not possible to continue searching. Every effort has been made. We have used the most high tech and the best people for this search.”

The Tuesday statement said that vessel was not located in the 120,000 square kilometer search area.

Source:- http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/17/asia/mh370-search-suspended/