Search For Missing Malaysian Plane Suspended, Families Cry Foul

Sydney: The arduous underwater search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was suspended on Tuesday, nearly three years after the plane vanished mysteriously over the Indian Ocean with 239 people, including five Indians, angering the grieving families who termed the move "irresponsible."

"Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modeling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft," according to a joint statement issued by Chinese, Australian and Malaysian officials. The three countries had been leading the massive underwater search for Flight MH370, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.

There were five Indians and one Indian-origin Canadian on board. The five Indians, including three from one family, were identified as Chetna Kolekar, 55, Swanand Kolekar, 23, Vinod Kolekar, 59, Chandrika Sharma, 51, and Kranti Shirsatha, 44. An Indo-Canadian, Muktesh Mukherjee, 42, was also on board.

"Accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended. The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness," the statement said. The Boeing 777-200's disappearance remains one of the greatest aviation mysteries in modern history. Searchers spent millions of dollars scouring tens of thousands of square miles, but so far have yielded little new information about the plane's final moments.

In July last year, Australia, China and Malaysia agreed that if the aircraft was not located by the time 120,000 square kilometres had been covered, the search would be suspended. There were 14 nationalities represented in the 227 passengers and 12 crew travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The majority - 153 people - were Chinese.

So far only seven of the 20 pieces of recovered debris have been identified as definitely or highly likely to be from the Boeing 777. A report in November 2016 said the plane probably made a “high and increasing rate of descent” into the Indian Ocean.

But Tuesday's joint statement said "no new information has been discovered to determine the specific location of the aircraft" despite numerous studies, but the three countries remained hopeful this would happen in the future. Reacting to the development, K S Narendran, who lost his wife of 25 years, Chandrika Sharma, said he was "perplexed and disappointed."

"I'm personally extremely disappointed. I feel that this decision has been the betrayal of a commitment that the government made to the families. I think they have vanished on a commitment made to the public at large to pursue the answers necessary to feel safe one more time they are flying," he told the BBC.