Search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may be suspended
The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be called off if it is not found soon, officials have said.
Once the current search area has been completely scoured, the hunt for the aircraft will be suspended if it has not been found, authorities from Malaysia, China and Australia said in a joint statement.
The Malaysian transport minister said the decision did not mean they were giving up on finding MH370, but hopes for discovering it are "fading".
The airliner disappeared in March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Specialist search teams have spent two years combing an area roughly the size of Greece in the southern Indian ocean off the western coast of Australia.
The search of the 120,000 square kilometre patch is expected to end in around three months.
However, earlier this week a new theory emerged about the crash, suggesting the plane may have glided into the sea rather than dived in its final moments. This could mean teams have been scouring the wrong patch of ocean for two years.
The statement released today said: "With less than 10,000 square kilometres of the high priority search area remaining to be searched, ministers acknowledged that despite the best efforts of all involved, the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading.
"Ministers agreed that should the aircraft not be located in the current search area, and in the absence of credible new evidence leading to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, the search would not end, but be suspended upon completion of the 120,000 square kilometre search area.
"The suspension does not mean the termination of the search. Ministers reiterated that the aspiration to locate MH370 has not been abandoned. Should credible new information emerge which can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps."