Where Is Flight MH370? Families Of Victims Appeal Authorities To Reconsider Search Suspension

Families of those on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 are pleading authorities to reconsider their decision of the search suspension. Australia, Malaysia and China on Tuesday announced that the underwater search for the missing Boeing 777-200 has been called off after no credible clues were found in the 46,000-square-mile search zone.

Australian and Malaysian transport ministers are scheduled to meet in Perth this week, and the next of kin of Flight MH370 passengers want to use this opportunity to request them to continue the search for the plane, which went missing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

"The MH370 next-of-kin implore the government of Malaysia to use this opportunity to urgently consult and reconsider the decision to suspend the search for MH370," campaign group Voice370 said in a statement.

Sheryl Keen, a supporter of Voice370, said Sunday that she plans to personally hand to Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai dozens of letters from relatives when Liow meets his Australian counterpart in Perth on Monday.

"I understand the disappointment and frustration felt by the families," Australia's Transport Minister Darren Chester said in a statement last week. "The tripartite decision to suspend the search in the absence of any credible new evidence leading to the specific location of the aircraft was not taken lightly."

Both transport ministers are set to meet the crew of Fugro Equator — the last ship to leave the search area off Australia's west coast — in Perth.

Nearly three years of search, which cost $150 million, for the missing plane yielded no evidence as to the plane's whereabouts. The only physical evidence in the search for the missing jet was the discovery of debris pieces on western Indian Ocean shorelines, some of which are believed to be from a Boeing 777-200 jet.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Chester said that future underwater search for the missing Boeing 777-200 has not been ruled out.

"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."