The Search for MH370 Will Soon Be Suspended

It's been more than two years since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared — and to this day, very little information is known about the whereabouts of the aircraft and what exactly happened to it. Now, the three countries leading the investigation — China, Malaysia and Australia — have decided to suspend the search if nothing is found in the current search area.

The three countries issued a statement noting the belief that the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading fast, and that although some debris has been found, none of it has provided enough information to correctly identify the exact location of the aircraft. The three countries came to the following conclusion:

...That should the aircraft not be located in the current search area, and in the absence of credible new evidence leading to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, the search would not end, but be suspended upon completion of the 120,000 square kilometer search area.

It's worth noting, however, that this suspension does not mean the search is being terminated altogether. If credible new information arises that can help lead to locating the aircraft, there will be consideration given to determine the next steps.

In the more than two years since MH370 disappeared after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing, searches have turned up little information. The aircraft is believed to be located somewhere in the Indian Ocean, and only a few pieces of wreckage have been found so far — a wing flap washed up on La Reunion island off the coast of Madagascar one year ago as well as other pieces found along the shores of Mauritius, South Africa and Mozambique.

That being said, pieces of new information do occasionally surface. Last week, for instance, an FBI forensic examination showed that the pilot had conducted a flight simulation on his personal computer that was very similar to the suspected route of the missing aircraft. The FBI analyzed hard drives containing a flight simulation he had built using Microsoft Flight Simulator X and found the mock-up route and the presumed route of MH370 to be similar.

H/T: Travel + Leisure

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