Search for missing MH370 flight suspended say Malaysian government

Flight officer Rayan Gharazeddine scans the water in the southern Indian Ocean off Australia from a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion during a search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, March 22, 2014 - (Getty Images)

The latest search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been postponed, 11 years after the Boeing 777 aircraft vanished.

Malaysia’s transport minister, Anthony Loke, said: "They have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the search at the end of this year," in a voice recording sent to AFP on Thursday.

On 8 March 2014, the Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 passengers and crew onboard fell off air traffic control radars 40 minutes into its six-hour journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The Malaysian government announced it had reached an agreement with British marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity to recommence the search for the wreckage last month.

However, during an event at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday (2 April), Mr Loke said, "Right now, it's not the season”.

The new search is focused on a 15,000sq km arc off the coast of Perth, Australia in the southern Indian Ocean, based on data including satellite signals and disrupted radio transmissions Kuala Lumpur found to be “credible”.

Under the “no-find, no-fee” deal, Ocean Infinity will get paid a fee of $70m (£54m) only if the wreck is discovered.

The initial underwater search by Malaysia, Australia and China covered a 120,000 sq km area of the southern Indian Ocean, finding little but debris.

Indonesian Air Force officials at Medan city military base plot the Indonesian military search operation for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 on March 12, 2014 (AFP/Getty)

“Whether or not it will be found will be subject to the search, nobody can anticipate," added the transport minister.

In February, marine tracking websites showed Ocean Infinity’s deep-water support vessel Armada 7806 had arrived at the new search zone in the Indian Ocean.

The search mission is expected to be the last sent looking for the lost plane as Ocean Infinity attempts to solve one of aviation’s biggest mysteries.

Search efforts had already deployed autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) from the Ocean Infinity ship and started scans of the ocean floor.

The AUVs, able to descend to a depth of 6km, are operated via a satellite link from the company’s control centre in Southampton and were expected to explore four areas identified as potential crash sites by researchers.

AUVs on Ocean Infinity’s Armada 7806, built in 2023, can spend four days submerged, twice as long as their 2018 predecessors.