Missing MH370 Aircraft Search to Conclude in Two Weeks

The search, which has been conducted by Malaysia, China and Australia across vast areas of the Indian Ocean since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plane disappeared in 2014 is set to come to an end; some 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) have been covered.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The search for the missing wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will conclude in two weeks, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said Friday.

"We are in the final lap within these two weeks. Once we complete that, they will report to us, and then we will have a tripartite meeting. We hope that we can find the plane and we pray really hard that the search will bear some fruit for us," Liow said, as quoted by the New Straits Times newspaper.

The search, which has been conducted by Malaysia, China and Australia across vast areas of the Indian Ocean since the plane disappeared in 2014, is now coming to an end after covering some 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) and costing some $145 million, with the three countries set to look into the final report and decide on their next move, the minister added.

In December, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the plane was unlikely to be in the search zone, which is concentrated in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, and could be further to the north. The end of the search operation was slated for 2017.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, less than an hour after takeoff. There were 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board the Boeing 777 aircraft. So far, several pieces of debris suspected to come from the aircraft have been found at different locations, including in Mozambique, South Africa and the French island of Reunion.

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