MH370: Malaysia, China, Australia have done their best - Geostrategist

The Malaysian government with the cooperation of Australia and China had intensely searched for Malaysia Airlines MH370 aircraft since it went missing from the radar 34 months ago, said geostrategist Prof Dr Azmi Hassan.

In fact, he said, it was not easy for the three countries without any experience in locating missing jetliners to sit down and search for the aircraft in the southern Indian Ocean which was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The geostrategist from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia's Perdana School said the effort to look for the ill-fated plane was conducted exhaustively by the Malaysian government despite failing to find any evidence on the actual location of MH370.

"Malaysia's efforts can be summed up as exceeding the responsibilities of an aircraft owner. Thus, the decision to suspend the search is acceptable.

"This is because the entire search area was based on Inmarsat satellite data and the search operation began as soon as the plane was reported missing despite the lack of indicators," he told Bernama today.

Flight MH370 was reported missing from the radar screen on March 8, 2014 and following that, search efforts on the sea bed of the Indian Ocean proceeded to look for the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft.

The search operation, conducted on a large scale involving several countries was described as the largest search and rescue operation ever undertaken in the world.

Despite the tireless efforts and strong commitment by the Malaysian government and participating countries, the search operation was today suspended.

In a joint statement, Malaysia, Australia and China today said the last search vessel in the operation would be leaving the search area which covers 120,000 sq km in the southern Indian Ocean without locating the aircraft.

The statement said the aircraft could not be traced despite all efforts made using the best scientific knowledge, the most sophisticated technology as well as modelling and advice from highly-skilled professionals in their respective fields.

Azmi said despite receiving pressure from various quarters, the search was conducted systemically as the authorities only conducted the search at the location which had been verified by data.

"It should be stressed here that so long as there is no supporting data, the government will not be conducting a search operation in the area where several pieces of debris were claimed to have been found.

"Without new evidence, it would be difficult to conduct another operation as it involves costs and time," said Azmi who is confident the mystery of the missing aircraft will be answered one day, if the search operation is resumed.

Meanwhile, aviation expert Prof Dr Mohd Harridon Mohamed Suffian said the suspension of the search operation was not the final episode for MH370 as he was sure an independent body or individual would conduct a search based on personal funding or public contributions.

The Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) test pilot said the move was important in the search for the answer and indicators including areas which have yet to be explored by the earlier search teams.

Sharing this view was former Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) investigation officer, Captain Abdul Rahmat Omar Tun Mohd Haniff who believed that new areas or search models which were different were needed to search for the location of the aircraft.

"The search operation would eventually come to an end, no doubt about it. The question is, have we done all that are needed? Drift models are there to assist in defining new search areas," he added.

-- BERNAMA