Hunt for flight MH370 may reopen

Melbourne – Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday he would reopen the search for flight MH370 if “compelling” evidence emerged, a decade after the plane disappeared.

“If there is compelling evidence that it needs to be reopened, we will certainly be happy to reopen it,” he said when asked about the matter during a visit to Melbourne in Australia.

The plane vanished in the Indian Ocean with 239 people aboard.

“It’s affecting the lives of people and whatever needs to be done must be done,” he said.

Malaysia Airlines flight 370, a Boeing 777 aircraft, disappeared from radar screens on 8 March, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has never been found and the operation was suspended in January 2017.

About 500 relatives and their supporters gathered on Sunday near Kuala Lumpur for a “remembrance day”, with many overcome with grief. Some of the relatives came from China, where almost two-thirds of the passengers of the doomed plane were from.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said “as far Malaysia is concerned, it is committed to finding the plane... cost is not the issue”.

He told the gathering that he would meet officials from Texas-based marine exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which conducted a previous unsuccessful search, to discuss a new operation.

An earlier Australia-led search that covered 120 000 square kilometres in the Indian Ocean found hardly any trace of the plane, with only some pieces of debris picked up. –