Mystery surrounding MH370

Malaysia’s prime minister dampens hopes of relatives

"Pray for MH370" is written on an office building in Kuala Lumpur.(Bild: AP)

Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warns against too high hopes of a breakthrough in the mystery surrounding Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared a good ten years ago. However, he promises the bereaved that he will leave no stone unturned.

"I don't want to give them false hope that we will get an answer," said Anwar in Berlin on Friday, addressing the relatives of the missing. He added: "But I want to convince them that we are doing everything possible." Even if it ends up costing "considerable resources".

The unsolved mystery
He himself was baffled by what happened on March 8, 2014. "I cannot understand how a steel giant like this can simply disappear in this day and age," said the Prime Minister of the Southeast Asian country. The Malaysia Airlines plane was carrying 239 people from 14 countries on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it disappeared from radar screens around two hours after take-off.

It is known that the plane flew over the Indian Ocean for another seven hours or so. What happened next is still one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.

Search could be resumed
Debris washed up on shores along the Indian Ocean. There is still no trace of the main fuselage of the plane, the occupants or the flight recorder. Malaysia, China and Australia launched an underwater search, which was abandoned in 2017 with no results.

A piece of debris from MH370 that has washed ashore(Bild: AFP)

A few days ago, Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced that the search for the plane might be resumed. Accordingly, the US specialist company Ocean Infinity has offered a further search operation, which would only have to be paid for if the company finds what it is looking for. As soon as the company's final proposal is available, it will be submitted to the cabinet for approval, the minister said. He did not specify a time frame.

Premier Anwar now said he expected a decision in the coming weeks. An earlier search operation by Ocean Infinity had yielded no results.