More than ten years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished, Kuala Lumpur’s transport minister said that the most recent search for the aircraft had been halted.
“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.
Over the course of three years, an initial search headed by Australia scanned 120,000 square kilometers (46,300 square miles) in the Indian Ocean, but very little evidence of the plane other than a few pieces of debris was discovered.
After leading an unsuccessful search in 2018, the British and American maritime exploration company Ocean Infinity agreed to start 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.
