Latest search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 to end next week

The latest search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will end next week (Picture: AP)

The latest search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will end next week, Malaysia’s new transport minister said.

The passenger plane, dubbed MH370, disappeared on March 8, 2014 while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board.

The official search was called off in January last year after 1,046 days but in January Malaysia signed a “no cure, no fee” agreement with Texas-based Ocean Infinity to resume the hunt.

Malaysia’s Transport minister Anthony Loke said the latest search was due to end in April but was extended twice until May 29 at Ocean Infinity’s request.

So far the hunt has not shed any light on the disappearance of the plane.

Saying the government will decide its next course of action next week, Mr Loke said: “There will be no more extensions. It cannot continue forever. Let’s wait until May 29 and we will then decide how to proceed.”

Under the deal, the government agreed to pay Ocean Infinity up to 70 million dollars based on the size of the area searched if the mission was successful within three months.

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Australian investigators recently rejected claims that MH370 was deliberately brought down by the pilot.

The denial from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau came after a book by former Canadian air crash investigator Larry Vance revived the theory that the pilot was in full control of the plane at the time of the crash and deliberately “ditched” it into the southern Indian Ocean.

The official search for the plane proved difficult because no transmissions were received from the aircraft after its first 38 minutes of flight and systems designed to automatically transmit the flight’s position failed to work.

Voice 370, which represents families of those aboard the flight, has urged the new government, which took power after the May 9 elections, to review all matters related to the jet’s disappearance, including “any possible falsification” or elimination of maintenance records and any omission that may have impaired tracking, search, rescue and recovery of the plane.

Mr Loke said the government is committed to transparency and will release details for public scrutiny in due time.