Private search for MH370 to end next week

Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014.
RAHMAN ROSLAN/GETTY IMAGES

Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014.

The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 by a private US firm will end next Tuesday and there will be no more extensions, Malaysia's transport minister says.

Houston-based Ocean Infinity has been searching for the aircraft that disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board including six Australians, in one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

"This morning I raised this in cabinet and agreed to extend to May 29," Anthony Loke told reporters on Wednesday (local time).

Asked if that meant no more extensions, he said: "Yes."

Ocean Infinity search comes after Australia, China and Malaysia ended a fruitless NZ$218 million search across a 120,000 square-kilometre area in the Indian Ocean last year, despite investigators calling for the target area to be extended 25,000 square kilometres north.