Al Jazeera :
The latest search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been suspended as it is “not the season”, according to the country’s transport minister, 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,” Anthony Loke said in a voice recording sent to the AFP news agency on Thursday. “Right now, it’s not the season.”
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777, was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members when it vanished en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in 2014 in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.
The decision came a couple of weeks after authorities said the search for the missing flight had resumed, following earlier failed attempts that covered vast swaths of the Indian Ocean.
An initial Australia-led search covered 120,000sq km (46,300sq miles) in the ocean over three years, but hardly found any trace of the plane other than a few pieces of debris.
Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in the United Kingdom and the United States, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year.
Last month, Ocean Infinity resumed the search for the wreckage of the missing flight.
Its most recent mission was conducted on the same “no find, no fee” principle as its previous search, with the Malaysian government paying out only if the firm finds the aircraft.
