A Dilemma for the Officials: Call off or Continue the Search for MH370?

22nd Jul 2016

It’s been more than two years since the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 on board disappeared off the radar while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Now, the officials from Australia (leading the search effort), Malaysia and China are in a dilemma: should they continue the search or call it off?

On one hand, the search party wasn’t very successful in finding any evidence of the missing aircraft. The only confirmed piece so far was located on the French-owned Reunion Island last year, while a number of other debris were also found near Mozambique, South Africa and  a few other places. However, all of these pieces were found not by the official search team, but by hikers and individuals who just happened to be there, begging the question – after two years, what does the official search have to show for itself?

Families Want the MH370 Search to Continue

Still, the families of MH370 victims still believe that the search teams will find what is really important to them and that’s their loved ones, who, along with the plane, are still missing. This is why they don’t want the search to be called off.

The Australian, Malaysian and Chinese officials now must meet to decide the fate of the MH370 hunt, with some 10,000 square km still designated to be scanned by ship-towed sonars.

The search has been the most expensive one ever, costing A$180 million and it hasn’t found any clue as to the fate of the MH370. Because of this, a group representing the families of the MH370’s passengers and crew members, Voice 370, has met with the officials to urge them not to end the search. Instead, the group has proposed the search to be suspended for a time, until new funds can be raised, and then continue the effort.

In addition, the group also called others to join the funding of the search, particularly the plane manufacturer Boeing, whose aircraft it was that crashed (Boeing 777).

Flight MH370 has presumably crashed somewhere off SW Australia. Most of the passengers on board were Chinese.