Flight MH370 Update: Cash Reward Offered To Private Parties For Credible Evidence On Missing Plane

Just days after the search for the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was called off, the deputy transport minister for Malaysia announced Thursday that a cash reward will be offered to private parties who can provide "substantial information or evidence" about the location of the missing jet. The search for Flight MH370 was suspended Tuesday after the underwater hunt for the plane yielded no concrete clues as to the plane's whereabouts.

"We are opening up the options because the government of Malaysia is committed to continue the search," Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said, according to the Week. "There will be cash rewards in the millions [of Malaysian ringgits] for those who are able to find substantial information or evidence like the fuselage."

Kaprawi also reportedly requested experts from various relevant industries "such as the oil and gas sector, mining and those in maritime and defence industries" to assist with the search.

Australia, China and Malaysia's decision to call off the search was criticized by the families of those on board the ill-fated jet. However, on Wednesday, Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said that future underwater search for the missing Boeing 777-200 has not been ruled out.

"It's not a closed book by any stretch," Chester said at a news briefing in Melbourne. "I don't rule out a future underwater search," adding: "It's a question of if you have credible new information, which leads to a specific location."

Flight MH370, with 239 people on board, went missing on March 8, 2014 while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Authorities earlier said that the plane may have crashed in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean.

Chester also said that the cost had not been the "deciding factor" in the decision to suspend the search. He stressed that there has been a "very limited amount of actual data that experts were dealing with."

"There's no question this has been a very costly exercise — in the order of 200 million Australian dollars has been spent on the underwater search effort of which 60 million dollars has been provided by the Australian government, and the Malaysian government has contributed more than anyone else in that regard," he said. "So it has been a costly exercise but it hasn't been the factor which has led to the decisions to suspend the search. We are in a position where we don't want to provide false hope to families and friends."

Over the last few months, several debris pieces have washed up on the shores of Mauritius, the French island Reunion, an island off Tanzania and in Mozambique. Some of the debris were discovered by independent searchers, following which the pieces were sent to Australia for further investigation.