The international investigation team probing the missing flight MH370 issued a statement on Tuesday, the two year anniversary of the plane`s disappearance, indicating that what happened remains a mystery.
“To date, the MH370 wreckage has still not been found despite the continuing search in the South Indian Ocean,” said the statement, which also offered no new insights into what happened to the plane.
An Australia-led search is operating on the assumption that the plane went down somewhere in the remote southern Indian Ocean, based on satellite data indicating the plane’s possible movements.
So far, they have covered about 70 percent of a designated search zone four times the size of Belgium and are expected to be finished within months. Unless promising new leads emerge, no new areas will be searched.
A wing fragment was found on Reunion island, thousands of kilometres (miles) from the search zone last July, and later confirmed as being from MH370 — the first proof the plane met a violent end.
A joint search effort in the southern Indian Ocean, where the plane presumably ended its journey, has yet to reveal its whereabouts after covering 75 percent of the 120,000 square km search area.
The search is expected to be completed later this year. Najib said his country was hopeful that the plane could be found in the search area.
“The disappearance of MH370 was without precedent, and the search has been the most challenging in aviation history,” Najib said in a statement.
“Amidst some of the world’s most inhospitable terrain — at depths of up to six kms, across underwater mountain ranges, and in the world’s fastest currents — the search team has been working tirelessly to find MH370’s resting place,” he said.
Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a tripartite meeting to determine the next step if the current search fails, said the prime minister. Most of the pasengers aboard the flight were Chinese.
