The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been temporarily suspended, Malaysia’s transport minister, Anthony Loke, announced on Thursday. The Boeing 777, which vanished on March 8, 2014, while traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, has yet to be found despite extensive search efforts.
Loke stated that the operation would be paused until the end of this year. His remarks followed the announcement just a month earlier that the search had resumed after earlier attempts failed to locate the plane, despite covering vast areas of the Indian Ocean.
The initial search, led by Australia, covered 120,000 square kilometres over three years but uncovered only a few pieces of debris. In 2018, the maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity led another unsuccessful search, before agreeing to conduct a new one this year.
Loke explained that the current time of year was not suitable for the search to continue, and while he acknowledged uncertainty about finding the wreckage, he emphasised that the search efforts would proceed.
