The Australian Government has reaffirmed its commitment to finding the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 a decade after the disaster.
The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared over the Indian Ocean on 8 March 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board including seven Australians. Despite years of searching, the aircraft has never been found, though pieces of debris have washed up over the last decade.
In a joint press release, Transport Minister Catherine King and Foreign Minister Penny Wong acknowledged the anniversary, recognising the “ongoing heartache and grief” of those who lost loved ones and the “significant contributions” made to efforts to find the plane.
“Australia coordinated what was one of the biggest search operations of its kind in history when the aircraft disappeared, searching over 3 million square kilometres above the water and more than 120,000 square kilometres under the water, sadly without locating the missing aircraft,” they said,
“We thank all of those who assisted in these efforts, including the Australian Defence Force, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the Defence Science and Technology Group, Geoscience Australia, and the CSIRO.
“The Australian Government is supportive of all practical efforts to find MH370. Australia stands ready to assist the Malaysian Government if it considers that Australian agencies are able to offer technical information as a result of their involvement in previous searches.”
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has signalled the Malaysian government is willing to reopen investigations if significant new evidence comes to light.
“We have taken the position that if there is a compelling case, evidence that it needs to be reopened, we’re certainly happy to reopen,” he told a press conference in Melbourne this month.
“Whatever needs to be done must be done.”
The country’s transport minister has also indicated he is in talks with Ocean Infinity, which led a robotic search effort in 2018, regarding potential new search operations.
The ATSB, which led the initial underwater search for the missing 777 between October 2014 and January 2017, has also acknowledged the anniversary, expressing its sympathies to families and friends of the missing passengers and crew.
ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said the search, which covered an area in excess of 120,000 square kilometres using high-resolution sonar in what was to that point the largest ever underwater search or survey of its kind, was challenging due to “very limited evidence”.
“This evidence consisted of aircraft performance information and satellite communication metadata initially, and then long-term drift studies to trace the origin of MH370 debris which washed up in East Africa during the search,” he said.
“Our search area was defined by the continual assessment of the available evidence.
“We truly regret that that evidence was not able to lead us to finding the aircraft’s final resting place, and to not be able to provide definitive answers to the families and the aviation industry as to the circumstances of the aircraft’s loss.”
