Underwater Search for Malaysia Airlines MH370 Ends

The underwater search for Malaysia Airlines MH370 has been suspended with no sign of the wreckage of the Boeing 777 found.

MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew onboard on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Investigators believe the plane was deliberately flown thousands of miles off course before crashing into the southern Indian Ocean off Australia.

“Today (January 17) the last search vessel has left the underwater search area. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has not been located in the 120,000 square-km underwater search area in the southern Indian Ocean,” a statement released by the three countries involved in the underwater search said.

“The search has not been able to locate the aircraft… accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended,” Australia, China and Malaysia said.

The search area of 120,000 sq km (46,300 sq miles) of the southern Indian Ocean seafloor is one of the most inhospitable areas on the planet. Strong winds and the area’s deep waters contributed to the difficulty in searching for MH370.

Australia, China and Malaysia agreed in July last year to call off the search after the area had been completed. Bad weather had delayed the hunt by several weeks.

Over the last nine months there has been a range of debris found along western Indian Ocean shorelines that have been linked to MH370. In July 2015 wreckage from an aircraft was found on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar. The wreckage, a flaperon, was later identified as coming from MH370.

Other objects have been found on and around the coast of Mozambique, and on Réunion.

In the statement released by the three countries they said they “remain hopeful that new information will come to light and that at some point in the future the aircraft will be located.”