Will MH370 Ever Be Found? Families Of Victims Reject Idea Of Memorial Site

The families of those on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 are unhappy with the Australian government's idea of creating a memorial site for the victims in Perth. The news comes ahead of a renewed search for the missing plane spearheaded by a private United States-based company.

The West Australian Government released a tender for a $125,000 memorial on Perth's Elizabeth Quay development, but the next of kin — two thirds of whom are Chinese nationals — appealed to shelve the plan as there has been no conclusion so far to the tragedy. The families claimed proposal for the memorial site has come too soon and also in the wrong location, Australia's ABC News reported. The families also said authorities did not consult with them before planning for the memorial.

"The establishment of such monuments usually takes place only after the matter has come to an end. But so far we don't know where our relatives are and where the plane is," Jiang Hui, 44, whose mother was on board Flight MH370 reportedly said.

Sher Keen, president of Aircrash Support Group Australia, an organization that supports air crash victims and their families, sent a letter protesting the Perth memorial.

"They just can't see the sense in placing a memorial there and placing a memorial there now," Keen said.

Flight MH370 went missing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A multimillion-dollar search in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean yielded no concrete clues as to the whereabouts of the jet. Australia, which was leading the underwater search for the plane, called off the hunt last January.

However, Ocean Infinity and the Malaysian government resumed talks to renew the search under a "no cure, no fee" structure, according to which the company will be paid only if the aircraft is found.

“While I am hopeful of a successful search, I’m conscious of not raising hopes for the loved ones of those on board,” Darren Chester, Australia’s Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, said in a statement in October. “I hope that this new search will bring answers, both for the next of kin and for the rest of the world.”

The only positive clue so far about the plane's disappearance came when debris pieces washed up on the shores of islands in the Indian Ocean. After analyzing the pieces, authorities said some of them came from the missing jet.

However, there has been no definite answer as to what might have happened to the Boeing 777-200. Several conspiracy theories, starting from a terrorist involvement to the pilot performing a death dive, have all surfaced over the last three years.