World, Asia - Pacific

MH370 family members to search for debris in Africa

Missing passengers' relatives urge coastal communities to continue search in east Africa where confirmed debris were found

03.12.2016 - Update : 08.12.2016
MH370 family members to search for debris in Africa File photo

By P Prem Kumar

KUALA LUMPUR

Seven family members of passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 left for Africa on Saturday to push for continued search operations for potential debris from the aircraft that vanished in 2014.

The next-of-kin gathered at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to meet the press and announce the decision, according to the New Straits Times daily.

The family members flew in from Malaysia, China, India, France and Australia -- all on a mission to encourage coastal communities in Madagascar to search for potential debris.

Voice MH370, an organization representing the families, said in a statement, “we want to encourage the coastal communities not to stop their search efforts, which is done on daily basis, just because the search authorities have decided to stop the search operations."

Spokeswoman Grace Nathan told reporters that search efforts in Madagascar should be continued as the only verified traces of the plane were found along the east coast of Africa.

"All debris collected to date have been found off the east coast of Africa by members of the public. Despite these hugely important finds, there has been no systematic, organized search by any responsible party,” she read from a statement.

"This leaves the next-of-kin no other choice except to take it upon ourselves to do something to find answers and closure," she added.

Flight MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur enroute to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

The jetliner has yet to be found despite massive search operations in the southern Indian Ocean where the aircraft was believed to have ended its flight after diverting from its original route.

To-date, at least six pieces of aircraft debris found along Africa’s east coast have been confirmed as “almost certainly” coming from MH370.

After 10 months of intensive undersea search for the vanished flight, on Jan. 29, 2015 Malaysia declared that MH370 was lost in an accident, killing all passengers.

On July 29 last year, a piece of aircraft debris was found washed ashore on the French island, east of Madagascar. The debris -- believed to be from a Boeing 777 -- was sent to Toulouse, France, for analysis the following day.

Days after, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that the flaperon was from MH370, and that the flight indeed ended in the Indian Ocean.

In October, authorities from Malaysia, Australia and China released a report saying that the hunt is now predicted to continue into 2017 as the search of 120,000 square kilometers (46,332 sq miles) of the southern Indian Ocean continues to be hampered by bad weather.

The hunt -- coordinated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau --was originally intended to be completed by mid-2016, but the report said the search of the remaining less than 10,000 sq km of the area will now be completed "around January/February 2017".

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