Australia shelves plan to build MH370 memorial

PERTH: Plans to erect a memorial honouring the passengers and crew of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 were shelved by Australia yesterday after protests by relatives of the victims.

The final resting place of the Boeing 777, which had 239 people on board when it disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014, is still unknown despite two massive underwater searches off Australia’s west coast.

The Western Australia state and federal governments in 2014 flagged plans to build a monument here, but relatives said they did not want it created until the jet was found.

“While some relatives were supportive of the memorial, others had concerns,” the state’s Premier Mark McGowan said.

“It was decided in the best interests of all concerned not to proceed with the memorial at this point in time. We are very confident, after consulting with the Australian relatives, that we have made the right call.”

A design competition for the memorial, which was to be built at Elizabeth Quay in the city centre, was launched earlier this year.

Danica Weeks, an Australian whose husband Paul was on the flight, told The West Australian newspaper that the governments “should not have wasted energy on this”.

“That energy should have been spent on finding the plane. When they find the plane, then we at least know where they are and we can decide about where to build a memorial that we can visit.”