The deep-sea search for missing Malaysia
Airlines flight MH370 ended on Tuesday without
any trace being found of the plane that vanished
in 2014 with 239 people on board, the three
countries involved in the search said. The location of Flight MH370 has become one of
the world's greatest aviation mysteries since
the plane, a Boeing 777, disappeared en route to Beijing from the Malaysian capital of Kuala
Lumpur. "Despite every effort using the best science
available ... the search has not been able to
locate the aircraft," Malaysian, Australian and
Chinese authorities said in a statement. "The decision to suspend the underwater search
has not been taken lightly nor without sadness." The last search vessel left the area on Tuesday,
the three countries said, after scouring the
120,000-sq-km (46,000-sq-mile) area of the
Indian Ocean sea floor that has been the focus
of the almost-three-year search. Malaysia, Australia and China agreed in July to
suspend the $145 million search if the plane
was not found, or if new evidence that might
offer a clue as to its whereabouts was not
uncovered, once that area had been checked. Australia last month dismissed an investigators'
recommendation to shift the search further
north, saying that no new evidence had
emerged to support that. Since the crash
there have been
competing
theories over
whether one, both
or no pilots were in control,
whether it was
hijacked - or whether all aboard perished and the plane was
not controlled at all when it hit the water. Adding to the mystery, investigators believe
someone may have deliberately switched off
the plane's transponder before diverting it
thousands of miles out over the Indian Ocean. A next-of-kin support group called Voice 370
said in a statement investigators could not leave
the matter unsolved. "In our view, extending the search to the new
area defined by the experts is an inescapable
duty owed to the flying public in the interest of
aviation safety," Voice 370 said.