China, Australia and Malaysia to suspend search for missing MH370 aircraft

Malaysia, Australia and China, the three countries who are involved in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, on Friday said that the deep-sea operation would be suspended after the completion of the current search that finishes later this year.

However, the countries say the process will be resumed if new evidence is found.

"In the absence of new credible evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively agreed to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000 sq-km search," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai, told a news conference, where he was with his Chinese and Australian counterparts.

"This does not mean we have given up on locating MH370... If there's any new credible evidence, we will continue to work together to analyse those evidence,'' Lai was quoted as saying by the Straits Times.

The search, which has been hampered due to bad weather is expected to end in October or November. The ministers sent a letter to the families of the passengers, informing them about the decision.

The search, led by Australia, has scoured almost 110,000 sq-km, using sonar equipment and underwater drones in the Southern Indian Ocean, where the plane is believed to have crashed. So far, nothing related to the plane has been found in the area. About $135m (£105m) has been spent on the search, which is reportedly the most expensive in aviation history.

The flight en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, had vanished on 8 March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board.

Investigators have not been successful in finding out the reason for the plane's disappearance due to lack of information and the failure to find the plane's black boxes and the main body. However, few pieces of debris, which was confirmed to be from a Boeing 777 have washed up on beaches of Madagascar and Mozambique, thousands of miles away from the location of the search.

According to a BBC report, MH370 is the only missing Boeing 777 in the world.