MH370: Search by private US firm will end next week, Malaysian Transport Minister says
Updated
Malaysia's new Transport Minister has said the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 by a private US firm will end next Tuesday and there will be no more extensions.
Key points:
- The previous government promised Ocean Infinity up to $93 million if it found the plane by the end of June
- The review comes amid Dr Mahathir's push to tackle Malaysia's '1 trillion ringgit' debt
- Dr Mahathir has said many of the figures recording the country's financial position may be false
Houston-based Ocean Infinity has been searching for the aircraft, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board in one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.
"This morning I raised this in cabinet and agreed to extend to May 29," new Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said.
Asked if that meant no more extensions, he said: "Yes."
Malaysia had agreed in January to pay Houston-based Ocean Infinity up to $93 million if it found the plane during a 90-day search in the southern Indian Ocean.
The hunt for the Boeing 777 was previously expected to end in June, as the 90-day agreement did not cover time taken for refuelling and resupplying search vessel Seabed Constructor.
However, Ocean Infinity had finished scouring its targeted search area in April and had requested an extension until May 29, Mr Loke said.
Mr Loke, who was sworn in as minister on Monday, said the government would release a full report on the investigation into MH370's disappearance after the offshore search was completed, but had not yet determined a date for the report's release.
The decision to engage Ocean Infinity came after Australia, China and Malaysia ended a fruitless $200 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 to the north.
The Seabed Constructor vessel has covered 86,000 square kilometres so far but has yet to identify any significant findings, Ocean Infinity said in its weekly search update on May 15.
Voice 370, a group representing the relatives of those aboard the flight, had called on the new government to review all matters related to MH370, including "any possible falsification or elimination of records related to MH370 and its maintenance".
"We urge the new government to include as part of its agenda in the next 100 days … a further investigation and inquiry into any act or omission across the entire spectrum of operations that may have impaired tracking, search, rescue and recovery," the group said in a statement.
Mr Loke said he will ensure all details are made public.
"I'm not privy to whatever details that may not have been revealed, but as minister, I am committed to releasing all details to the public," he said.
Earlier, newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the Government would review the search and terminate it if it was deemed not to be useful.
"We want to know the details of this (search), the necessity of this, and if we find it is not necessary, we will not renew," Dr Mahathir said after chairing his first cabinet meeting since taking office.
The announcement came as Dr Mahathir's administration moved to cut government spending after reviewing the country's debt levels.
Dr Mahathir said the national debt of South-East Asia's third-largest economy was 65 per cent of GDP.
ABC/Reuters
Topics: air-and-space, disasters-and-accidents, malaysia, asia
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