FOR four years the families of those lost on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have waited for answers about their fate.
Hopes for a resolution faded as the latest search came to a close.
US-based seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity had been scouring the depths of the southern Indian Ocean in hopes of finding the passenger plane.
But the operation is over and the Malaysian government says no new searches are planned.
WHEN DID IT HAPPEN?
THE flight had left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing when contact with air traffic control was lost part way through the journey, which should have taken around six hours.
As many as 239 people were on board, with the youngest, Wang Moheng, who was travelling with his parents, just 23 months old.
HOW CAN A PLANE JUST DISAPPEAR?
THAT was amongst the most common questions after it vanished from tracking systems on March 8 2014.
No distress signal was received and the last message sent by onboard computers came around half an hour after take-off.
A communication with Malaysian air traffic control followed shortly after and its transponder was shut off as over the South China Sea as it travelled into Vietnamese airspace. However, it failed to make a scheduled report to authorities there soon after and is known to have headed west then north over the Andaman sea off India in a deviation from its planned route.
That change meant the initial search focused on the wrong area until data on its last known movements was recovered from military radar systems.
A large piece of debris washed up on Reunion island, near Madagascar, 14 months later.
WHY HAS THE SEARCH ENDED NOW?
THE “no find, no fee” deal between the Malaysian government and Ocean Infinity has concluded.
The company was in line for a reward of $20-70 million dollars to find the wreckage.
The move came after authorities in Malaysia, China and Australia said they would suspend the official search pending solid information about the airliner’s location.
While a full report into the disappearance has been promised by authorities in Kuala Lumpur, no date has yet been set. The country’s transport minister has said it is time for “closure”.
WHAT DO THE FAMILIES SAY?
CHANDRIKA Sharma, from India, was amongst those lost. The 51-year-old was heading for a conference in Mongolia when the plane disappeared. Her husband KS Narendran, who has written a book about her loss, has hit out at Malaysia’s leadership, saying: “I am barely able to contain my deep sense of betrayal.
“It is barely possible to conceal anger at a decision taken without the courtesy of a meeting and consultation with affected families.”
Meanwhile, Australian Danica Weeks, whose 39-year-old husband Paul is also amongst the missing, said: “We don’t get closure. We don’t get to walk away.”
WHAT OTHER QUESTIONS REMAIN?
THERE is still no consensus about why the plane went down. One theory blames onboard technical problems, while another blames the pilots.
Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s prime-minister-in-waiting, believes there is “further digging” to be done. He told The Australian: “Was it a failure of the system? Was it a failure of those monitoring the system or was it an intention to ignore or cover up?
“To me, that is still to be determined.”
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