All indications, at this point in time, are that the plane may never be found in the current search location by the time it’s completed.
“From my personal opinion, Australia is within its rights to call off the search,” Sakinab Shah, the sister of Captain Zaharie, told ABC. “It’s Malaysia’s responsibility, this is Malaysian MH370, our national carrier, once our pride and joy.”
She added that her brother was deeply missed. “There’s nobody in this world that can replace him. He was a very kind fellow, very caring. He made time for everybody. He was generous-hearted.”
Dolan said his search team of 200 people were still deeply committed and passionate about the search. He added that once the present search area was completed, he would prefer that the hunt be continued.
“Obviously, if you ask me, from the point of view of ATSB working with the Malaysian authorities, our preference very strongly would be to continue the operations until we find the aircraft,” he told ABC. “But we are realistic that there comes a point when governments have to decide that they have spent enough resources on the task.”
From the professional investigation point of view, he stressed, “we are saying we should continue until we find the aircraft”.
The search area, calculated from satellite data, covered the vast majority of the possible flight paths of the aircraft, he assured. “If we don’t find it in that area, then it’s in an adjacent area that we will find the aircraft. It’s just that the adjacent area is large.”
He conceded that ATSB didn’t start looking for surface wreckage of the aircraft in the southern Indian Ocean until Day 10 or 11 after the disappearance of the aircraft, and by that time, “things could have drifted a long way”.
Self-funded Blaine Gibson, an American who found debris related to MH370 off the coast of Mozambique in March this year, hopes that the search team will refine the area. “They should look at other evidence in the hope that more debris is found that can give an idea where it is.”
“Maybe, it’s somewhere north-west of there.”
Gibson said authorities should look at the eyewitness sightings in the Maldives and other eyewitness accounts in Malaysia. “Most importantly, work on the debris evidence, the currents and drift of the five pieces of debris that have been identified, and the marine biology on them.”
He hopes that an international consortium would continue the search for MH370 once the Australian-led search ends.
Five pieces of debris related to MH370 have been found so far in the western Indian Ocean. Another three pieces, which washed up on beaches in Mauritius and Mozambique, are being examined by Australian investigators.
MH370, a Boeing 777, went missing on 8 March 2014 with 239 passengers and crew members. There were six Australian nationals and permanent residents on board the ill-fated aircraft. Most of the passengers were from China.