‘Hope has been washed away’: MH370 families condemn decision to halt search
‘it’s another kick in the guts’ says family of decision to stop search despite new evidence
Families of passengers who were on board missing flight MH370 say a government decision to end the search for the plane and ignore game-changing new evidence of its location is “another kick in the guts”.
Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul was one of 238 passengers and crew on the doomed Malaysia Airlines jet, told Fairfax Media that new analysis showing the plane likely crashed in a stretch of the Indian Ocean north of the existing search zone should trigger an extension of the operation.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau review, conducted by a panel of international experts and released this week, found that the 120,000 square kilometre search area likely never contained the wreckage and that salvage teams should instead scour a 25,000 square kilometre area further north.
But the Australian government quickly knocked the idea on the head, saying countries involved in the two-year, A$200 million (US144 million) search agreed it will terminate soon unless credible evidence about the “specific location” of the aircraft is found.
Mrs Weeks said the new information was credible and suggested Malaysia should take over and continue the operation if Australia was unwilling.
“They have to find it. It’s not just about us. It’s about the aviation industry as a whole. And if we don’t find out what happened to this plane, it could happen again,” she said.
