Malaysian PM: Search for Missing Jet to Resume if New Evidence Emerges
Mahathir Mohamad reacts after private US company announces end to search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370
Malaysia's prime minister says the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will resume if new evidence of its possible whereabouts come to light. The latest search for the missing jetliner ended Tuesday after U.S.-based exploration company Ocean Infinity announced it was ending its three-month effort to find the plane after searching 112,000-square kilometers. "We have come to a stage where we cannot keep searching for something we cannot find," Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told reporters Wednesday. One of the world's biggest aviation mysteries began on March 8, 2014, when the Boeing 777 disappeared in 2014 carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The governments of Australia, Malaysia and China suspended the official search after scrutinizing about 119,139 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean floor at a cost of more than $150 million. Officials then concluded that the probable crash site was farther north. After pressure from the families of the victims, the former Malaysian government struck a deal with Ocean Infinity to restart the search in January on the condition it would only be paid if the Boeing 777 or its flight data recorders, or black boxes, were found. The firm stood to make up to $70 million if successful but did not find any sign of the airliner, despite scouring the seabed with some of the world's most high-tech search equipment. Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke has said a full report into the plane's disappearance will be published in the future, but a date has not been given. Australia, Malaysia and China have agreed that an official search would resume only if credible evidence emerged on the plane's location.