The Malaysian Government wants a final report on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 published by July but said the “aspiration” to find the wreckage would not be abandoned.
The latest search for the missing aircraft came to end Tuesday after searching 112,000 sq.kms without finding the wreckage.
In a statement issued Wednesday, new Malaysian Transport Minister Loke Siew Fook urged the International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 13 investigation to finalize the report into the crash “in the near future to be published by July hopefully”.
Unlike the analysis used to determine the search areas, the Annex 13 investigation can look into possible causes of the accident.
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It involves representatives from seven international air crash investigation organizations from Australia, China, France, Indonesia, Singapore, the UK and the US.
“I wish to reiterate that the aspiration to locate MH370 will never be abandoned and we remain ever hopeful that we will be able to find the answers we seek and new information will come to light and that at some point in the future the aircraft will be located,’’ Loke said.
“We remain steadfast in our unwavering commitments towards solving the mystery of MH370 to bring some closure to this unfortunate incident.”
The statement came as The Guardian newspaper said the high-tech ship conducting the search for Ocean Infinity would investigate one last area of interest before heading back to port.
This was an area, at 25 degrees south and 101 degrees east, where a Chinese patrol ship detected a pulse in 2014 that at the time was thought to be possibly from one of the aircraft’s black boxes.
A company spokesman confirmed there were a couple of days to run before the ship headed back to port and it should reach the area where the Chinese pings were heard.
“It’s nothing more than that,” he said.
The search officially ended Tuesday after the Malaysian government refused to extend it and sent mixed messages about its commitment to continue the hunt.
READ: MH370 company hopes to resume the search in future.
Ocean Infinity, the company contracted to conduct the search on a no find, no fee basis, has said it hopes to be able to resume the operation.
The agreement with the Malaysian government would have netted it $US70m if it has located the wreckage.
“Whilst clearly the outcome so far is extremely disappointing, as a company, we are truly proud of what we have achieved both in terms of the quality of data we’ve produced and the speed with which we covered such a vast area,” Ocean Infinity chief executive Oliver Plunkett said.
“There simply has not been a subsea search on this scale carried out as efficiently or as effectively ever before.
“We sincerely hope that we will be able to again offer our services in the search for MH370 in future.”
Ocean Infinity’s next job is with a resources company believed to be Woodside Energy.
