KUALA LUMPUR, April 3, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The latest search for Malaysia
Airlines flight MH370 has been suspended, Kuala Lumpur's transport minister
said, more than a decade after the plane went missing.

"They have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the
search at the end of this year," Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a
voice recording sent to AFP on Thursday by his aide.

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8,
2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has not been found.

Loke's comments come just one month after authorities said the search had
resumed, following earlier failed attempts that covered vast swaths of the
Indian Ocean.

An initial Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometres (46,300
square miles) in the Indian Ocean over three years, but found hardly any
trace of the plane other than a few pieces of debris.

Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United
States, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new
search this year.

"Right now, it's not the season," Loke said in the recording, which was made
during an event at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday.

"Whether or not it will be found will be subject to the search, nobody can
anticipate," Loke said, referring to the wreckage of the plane.

- Aviation mystery -

The search was put on hold "due to seasonal weather changes and unavoidable
prior commercial commitments", a separate statement posted on the "MH370
Families" Facebook group said.

Loke said in December that a new 15,000 square kilometre area of the southern
Indian Ocean would be scoured by Ocean Infinity.

The most recent mission was conducted on the same "no find, no fee" principle
as Ocean Infinity's previous search, with the government only paying out if
the firm finds the aircraft.

The plane's disappearance has long been the subject of theories -- ranging
from the credible to outlandish -- including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad
Shah had gone rogue.

A final report into the tragedy released in 2018 pointed to failings by air
traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others were from
Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, and elsewhere.

Relatives of passengers lost on the flight have continued to demand answers
from Malaysian authorities.

Family members of Chinese passengers gathered in Beijing outside government
offices and the Malaysian embassy last month on the 11th anniversary of the
flight's disappearance.

Attendees of the gathering shouted, "Give us back our loved ones!"

Some held placards asking, "When will the 11 years of waiting and torment
end?"