MH370 families say search for plane must go on
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Kuala Lumpur, Jan. 17, 2017 (dpa/NAN) The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 must continue, relatives of passengers from the plane said on Tuesday.
The relatives made this known while reacting to a decision by countries leading the search to call it off.
Voice 370, a group for loved ones of MH370 passengers, said in a statement that it was dismayed by the announcement to suspend the search.
“Commercial planes cannot just be allowed to disappear without a trace.
“The search must go on,” the group said, asking Malaysia, China and Australia to reconsider the decision to suspend the search.
Their call came immediately after countries leading the search for the plane, which went missing on March 8, 2014, announced the suspension of the search.
The search has cost more over 150 million dollars during the course of almost three years without turning up a trace of the plane.
“Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has not been located in the 120,000 square-km underwater search area in the southern Indian Ocean,” Joint communique from the three countries involved in the search said.
It said that the search was “not able to locate the aircraft despite efforts using satellite data, accident investigation, flight operations, sonar data, and oceanography.
“Accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended, the decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly, nor without sadness.
“Today’s announcement is significant for our three countries, but, more importantly for the family and friends of those on board the aircraft.
“We remain hopeful that new information will come to light and that at some point in the future the aircraft will be located,” it said.
Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Lai said the search will be suspended unless new, credible clues on the whereabouts of the plane emerge.
“We have tried our best, given the data by the expert team to search the area.
“We have put in our effort; it was not an easy search.
It was unprecedented waters,”he said.
In July, the three countries had agreed to suspend the search if no “credible new evidence” about the plane’s location was discovered.
“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.
In December, a review based on analysis by a team of international experts and investigators said the underwater search zone probably did not contain the missing aircraft.
That, instead, identified “an additional area of 25,000 square km” that could contain the wreckage.
The conclusion had raised the prospect of the search being continued.
However, the announcement has now quashed that possibility.
Voice370 said the experts’ view of the additional new search area “is an inescapable duty owed to the flying public in the interest of aviation safety.”
“Having already searched 120,000 square km stopping at this stage is nothing short of irresponsible.
“Its nothing short of betrays a shocking lack of faith in the data, tools and recommendations of an array of official experts assembled by the authorities themselves,” the statement said.
Grace Subathirai, a daughter of one of the MH370 passengers, said the statement to suspend the search “is totally unacceptable.”
“What was the purpose of the independent review, the recommendation [of the December review] is an additional 25,000 km.
“If money is a concern, prioritise within this area,” she said.
“Our repeated appeal, has been ignored. Our request to meet with [the ministers] was ignored,” she said.
Danica Weeks, an Australian whose husband went missing on MH370 on his way to a Mongolian mine site for work, said she was,”distraught the search has been called off.”
“I’m still processing it, it’s unacceptable, it’s just disgusting, really.
“It is their (Malaysia) plane, their responsibility, they’re the ones that promised they would bring them home and now they are just giving up.
“We want answers, we want to know where our loved ones are, how they ended up there,” she said.
MH370 went missing during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, including the crew.
The plane is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean.
The search was the most expensive and exhaustive in aviation history.
So far, more than 20 pieces of debris have been found along African coasts.
The finds were made by individuals not related to the official search.
Only three pieces have been confirmed as debris from the missing aircraft. (dpa/NAN)
(Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Julius Enehikhuere)