Government will agree if ATSB stops search for MH370 - Aziz Kaprawi

The government will give the greenlight if the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) wants to terminate the search mission for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean, said Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi.

He said the search area for the plane which went missing on March 8 2014 was approaching 120,000 sq kilometres.

"If we have completed searching in the determined area (120,000 sq km), we will agree with Australia which is heading the search and the advice of experts to cease the mission," he told reporters after opening the KTM Academy Convention (MyRa), here today.

Ab Aziz was commenting on an ATSB statement on Monday which reported that the chances of finding MH370 was getting slimmer as the search had now reached the last remaining 15,000 sq km.

According to ATSB, since the search began two years ago, the authorities had covered 105,000 sq km as of May 11 this year.

ATSB added that Malaysia, Australia and China had agreed that if the search over 120,000 sq km was not successful, the search area would not be expanded.

On other matters, Aziz said the government planned to design and built its own train in 10 years time.

He said the government did not want to forever depend on outside resources for the country rail industry.