Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 ends
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Dan Rivers
A three-year search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has ended without any trace of the aircraft, authorities have announced.
The Boeing 777 was on its way from Kuala Lumpar to Hong Kong on March 8, 2014, when it disappeared from radar screens with 239 passengers and crew on board.
Its disappearance sparked the most expensive and complex search operation in aviation history.
A Joint Agency Coordination Centre in Australia, which has helped lead the $160 million deep-sea hunt alongside partners in China and Malaysia, said the search has been suspended after crews finished their final sweep of the 120,000-square kilometer (46,000-square mile) search area.
In a joint-statement, they said: "Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting-edge technology, as well as modelling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft.
"Accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended. The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness."
More than 20 items of debris, suspected or confirmed to be from the missing plane, have washed up on coastlines throughout the Indian Ocean.
The joint coordination centre agreed in July to suspend the search if the plane was not found, or new evidence did not materialise.
Last month investigators recommended to shift the search area further north, but this was dismissed by Australia who said there was no evidence to support their claims.
A support group for relatives of the victims, called Voice 370, criticised the decision and said authorities could not leave the matter unsolved.
In a statement they said: "In our view, extending the search to the new area defined by the experts is an inescapable duty owed to the flying publicin the interest of aviation safety.
"Commercial planes cannot just be allowed to disappear without a trace.
"Having already searched 120,000 square kilometres, stopping at this stage is nothing short of irresponsible, and betrays a shocking lack of faith in the data, tools and recommendations of an array of official experts assembled by the authorities themselves."
The three-year search for MH370:
8 March 2014 - The plane is lost and the search begins.
11 March 2014 - The search for the missing plane is widened to cover a 115-nautical mile radius but several sightings of debris turn up nothing.
15 March 2014 - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says the missing airliner was deliberately diverted and continued flying for more than six hours after losing contact with the ground.
7 April 2014 - Two signals are detected suggesting the presence of a flight data recorder in the "most promising lead so far".
June 2014 - A preliminary report issued by Australian authorities suggests MH370's crew became incapacitated, possibly due to oxygen starvation, and the plane continued on autopilot.
8 March 2015 - An interim report released on the first anniversary of MH370's disappearance suggests a battery in the underwater locator beacon on the plane had expired in December 2013.
29 July 2015 - Plane debris washes up on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean.
3 September 2015 - Tests carried out on the Réunion Island debris prove it is from the missing jet.
3 March 2016 - A South African family find a piece of suspected plane wreckage off the coast of Mozambique, which is from the same type plane as MH370 - the only missing 777. The piece is confirmed to belong to MH370.
July 2016 - A search of one of the pilot's homes shows that he took a similar route to the doomed jet on a home simulator.
December 2016 - Australian authorities release a report suggesting the plane is unlikely to be in the core search area.
January 2017 - Authorities say they will no longer search for the plane.