Children write messages of hope for passengers of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. PHOTO: REUTERS
The flight disappeared on its way to Beijing four years ago on 8 March 2014. It took off from Kuala Lumpur and carried 239 people, becoming one of the greatest aviation mysteries as it disappeared.
The only confirmed traces of the plane have been three wing
fragments found washed up on coasts of the Indian Ocean.
"We have to come to a stage where we cannot keep searching for something we cannot find," Mahathir said at a news conference.
"If we find any new information, we may resume the search," he stated.
After the conclusion of a privately-financed underwater search on Tuesday, Malaysian government announced it would release a report on the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
Mohamad's government stated that US-based Ocean Infinity will conclude its hunt on Tuesday. Ocean Infinity is a Texas-based sea exploration firm that has scoured the Indian Ocean for the missing craft since January.
Najib Razak, the defeated ex-Prime Minister, and his administration had promised around $70 million to Ocean Inginity if they managed to find the plane in 90 days. Anthony Loke, Malaysia's transport minister, announced that a full report in MH370 would be published. He did not, however, cite a date.
Russian plane crashes in Syria killing all 32 on board
"I can assure you the final report will be published with full disclosure. There will not be any edits, or anything hidden," he said, speaking to reporters on Monday.
When asked if the report would include controversial elements of MH370's case, Loke said, "To me, whatever elements,
we will just publish it".
Australian authorities said last year that six weeks before the disappearance, MH370's captain had flown a route on a home simulator that was"initially similar" to the course that was actually taken. Peter Foley, who headed the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's search, told the Australian Senate that "control inputs" flew the airliner off course. It was indeterminate if one of the pilots had done so, he said.
In 2015, Malaysian investigators had said that they found nothing suspicious in financial, medical, or personal histories of the pilots or flight crew.
Training plane crashes at Lahore's Ferozepur Road
Ocean Infinity was contacted after a combined search by Australia, China and Malaysia ended last year. The search cost $159 million and spanned 120,000 kilometres of the Indian Ocean. The search ended despite investigators request to extend the target area north by 25,000 square kilometres. On Tuesday, Ocean Infinity CEO Oliver Plunkett said that their team had searched more than 112,000 kilometres of the ocean floor in three months. He hoped that the company would be able to offer its services for future searches, even if the first search had been "extremely disappointing".
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, when asked about China's future involvements in searches, said that China had always maintained close contact with relevant people."We will continue to maintain communication with relevant parties," Hua Chunying stated at a news briefing in Beijing.
The group Voice 370, representing the relatives of those on the flight, has insisted the Malaysian government review all matters in the MH379 case, "any possible falsification or elimination of records related to MH370 and its maintenance".
The husband of a crew member, Calvin Shin, was concerned that the report would not reflect results of a separate investigation by the Malaysian police or include information like the plane's full cargo manifest.
"We know that this issue is already four years old and a lot of people involved want closure," he said. "These four years have not been fun to us, the families."
Michael McCormack, Australia's Deputy Prime Minister said that the search was a challenge to experts at sea and tested the limits of technology. It could only resume if there appeared "credible evidence which identifies a specific location of the missing aircraft".
"We will always remain hopeful that one day the aircraft
will be located," said a statement released by McCormack's office.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ