Il Nuovo Postiglione - Search for Malaysia's long missing MH370 suspended

"They (Ocean Infinity) have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the search at the end of this year," Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a voice recording sent to AFP on Thursday by his aide.

Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year.

"Right now, it's not the season," Loke said in the recording, which was made during an event at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday.

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has not been found.

Loke's comments come a little over a month after authorities said the search had resumed, following earlier failed attempts that covered vast swaths of the Indian Ocean.

An initial Australia-led search trawled 120,000 square kilometres (46,300 square miles) of the Indian Ocean over three years, but found hardly any trace of the plane.

Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year.

"Whether or not it will be found will be subject to the search, nobody can anticipate," Loke said, referring to the wreckage of the plane.

Relatives of the victims had voiced hope in February that a new search could finally bring them closure.

- Aviation mystery -

Loke said in December that a new 15,000 square kilometre area of the southern Indian Ocean would be scoured by Ocean Infinity.

The most recent mission was conducted on the same "no find, no fee" principle as Ocean Infinity's previous search, with the government only paying out if the firm finds the aircraft.

The plane's disappearance has long been the subject of theories -- ranging from the credible to outlandish -- including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue.

A final report into the tragedy released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

Investigators said in the 495-page report that they still did not know why the plane vanished, and refused to rule out that someone other than the pilots had diverted the jet.

Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others were from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and elsewhere.

Relatives of passengers lost on the flight have continued to demand answers from Malaysian authorities.

Family members of Chinese passengers gathered in Beijing outside government offices and the Malaysian embassy last month on the 11th anniversary of the flight's disappearance.

Attendees of the gathering shouted, "Give us back our loved ones!"

Some held placards asking, "When will the 11 years of waiting and torment end?"

F.Ciambrone--INP