The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has ended after nearly three years, the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre in Australia has said.

Crews have finally completed their deep-sea search of a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean without finding a single trace of the plane.

The centre said on Tuesday that the search had officially been suspended after crews finished their fruitless sweep of the 46,000-square mile search zone west of Australia.

The end of the hunt raises the prospect that the world’s greatest aviation mystery may never be solved.

READ MORE - Pilot of missing Malaysian plane plotted Indian ocean course

For the families of the 239 people on board, the suspension of the search is particularly bitter following a recent acknowledgement by officials that they had been looking for the plane in the wrong place. </s> (WIAT) — The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is suspended. Officials say they completed their search in the Indian Ocean and there is no evidence to warrant continued looking.

The Boeing 777 disappeared nearly three years ago with 239 passengers and crew members on board. </s> Hong Kong (CNN) Officials involved in the arduous search for Malayasia Airlines Flight 370 won't rule out another hunt for the plane if "credible" evidence emerges, Australia's transport minister said Wednesday.

"It's not a closed book by any stretch," Darren Chester said at a news briefing in Melbourne. "I don't rule out a future underwater search."

"It's a question of if you have credible new information, which leads to a specific location."

Australian, China and Malaysia announced the suspension of the the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 nearly three years after the plane vanished without a trace over the Indian Ocean.

Officials from those nations had been leading the search for MH370, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board. The countries on Tuesday issued a joint statement announcing the suspension.

"The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness," the statement said. "Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modeling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft."

At the news conference, Chester was asked what "credible evidence" would be.

"We'll know it when we see it," he said.

He's hoping that new technologies, improved analysis of data, and better equipment would lead to solving what he calls an "extraordinary aviation mystery.

"I am hopeful we'll have a breakthrough in the future," he said. "It's reasonable to expect there may be more debris uncovered in the weeks and months and possibly even years ahead which could lead to further information in solving this puzzle."

Chester said the cost hadn't been the "deciding factor" in the decision to suspen.

"There's no question this has been a very costly exercise -- in the order of 200 million Australian dollars has been spent on the underwater search effort of which 60 million dollars has been provided by the Australian government, and the Malaysian government has contributed more than anyone else in that regard," he said.

"So it has been a costly exercise but it hasn't been the factor which has led to the decisions to suspend the search. We are in a position where we don't want to provide false hope to families and friends."

He stressed that there has been a "very limited amount of actual data that experts were dealing with."

"The fact that we haven't located the aircraft in the 120,000-squar-kilometer highest probability search area would indicate the aircraft is not in that area."

Greg Hood, chief commissioner for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, told reporters that "residual search-related activity is continuing" until February.

He said the ATSB would continue to analyze satellite imagery for any signs of MH370 as well as any debris that may be linked to the missing plane.

Voice370, a support group for family members of those aboard the flight, released a statement expressing disappointment over the suspension.

"Commercial planes cannot just be allowed to disappear without a trace," the statement said.

"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."

Steve Wang, whose mother was on board the flight, told CNN he was disappointed the search had ended with few, if any, answers.

"They said they are quite sure that they are searching the right place, but it seems that they are wrong," he said.

"I think it is their responsibility, not only for the 239 passengers on the plane, or for the next of kin like us, but also they have to give an answer to the whole world ... what really happened to MH370."

Chester said members of families he spoke to "in the last 24 hours" had been "very understanding of the decision that has been reached by the three governments" during their "emotional time."

"Some were aware that we were approaching the completion of the priority search area (and) they were very thankful to the ATSB and the experts and the searchers for the work they've done. They were very appreciative of the Australian government's effort and understood the decision."

By the numbers 26 -- Countries involved in search 151 -- Estimated cost of search in millions of U.S. dollars 239 -- Crew and passengers on MH370 1,046 -- Days MH370 missing when search ended 6,000 -- Meters deep in parts of the ocean searched 120,000 -- Square kilometers in final search area 4,600,000 -- Square kilometers in original search area Source: Joint Agency Coordination Centre

Multiple family members of those who were on the plane told CNN they received a text message from Malaysia Airlines informing them about a briefing in Beijing at 9 a.m. local time.

In a statement, the airline said it "stands guided" by the decision to suspend the search, which it described as a "thorough and comprehensive effort."

The company shares "in the sorrow" that the search was not successful, the statement said.

The plane's disappearance remains one of the greatest aviation mysteries in modern history.

Searchers spent millions of dollars scouring tens of thousands of square miles, but so far have yielded little new information about the plane's final moments.

In July last year, Australia, China and Malaysia agreed that if the aircraft was not located by the time 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) had been covered, the search would be suspended.

"The decision came not lightly," Chester said at the time. "But in the absence of new credible evidence it is not possible to continue searching. Every effort has been made. We have used the most high tech and the best people for this search."

The Tuesday statement said that vessel was not located in the 120,000 square kilometer search area.

What we do know

At 12:41 a.m. local time on March 8, 2014, MH370 departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing. It was heading north but after its last message of "Good night Malaysian Three Seven Zero," it changed course toward the west, according to military radar.

From there, investigators believe it turned south around the edge of Indonesia and across the vast Indian Ocean.

Investigators confirmed in July that MH370 captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah had tracked a route deep into the Indian Ocean on his home flight simulator, very similar to the one officials believe the missing plane took.

Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 There is still no way to know for sure why Flight MH370 ended, but we are learning more about the lives of those on board. CNN is remembering them through snapshots shared with us. Hide Caption 1 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 Rodney and Mary Burrows were looking forward to becoming first-time grandparents after their return home to Australia. Hide Caption 2 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 Australians Catherine and Robert Lawton were traveling with friends on vacation when the flight disappeared. Hide Caption 3 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 Paul Weeks was traveling to Mongolia for a new job as an engineer. His wife says Paul left behind his watch and his wedding ring before the trip, in case anything happened to him while he was away. Anderson spoke with Paul's brother & sister who said they are coping by spending time together as a family. Hide Caption 4 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 Chandrika Sharma, left, was on Flight 370; her daughter Meghna and husband K.S. Narendran wait patiently, trying to manage their anxiety and longing for her return. Hide Caption 5 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 Muktesh Mukherjee and Xiaomo Bai had been vacationing in Vietnam and were on their way home to their two young sons in Beijing. Hide Caption 6 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 76-year-old Liu Rusheng, an accomplished calligrapher and one of the oldest passengers on the flight, was in Malaysia to attend an art exhibition with his wife. Hide Caption 7 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 Teens Hadrien Wattrelos and Zhao Yan are shown in a photo on Wattrelos' Facebook page. The photo is captioned, simply, "I love you," in French. Hide Caption 8 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 Firman Chandra Siregar, 24, studied electrical engineering in Indonesia and was on his way to Beijing on board Flight 370 to start a new job at an oil company. Hide Caption 9 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 Patrick Francis Gomes, center, was the in-flight supervisor for the missing plane. His daughter describes him as a quiet person with a sense of humor. Hide Caption 10 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 Ch'ng Mei Ling, a Malaysian citizen who lives in Pennsylvania, is a process engineer at a chemical company. Hide Caption 11 of 12 Photos: Remembering the passengers of MH370 We do not have photos of all 239 passengers, but we wanted to remember that there are loved ones around the world missing them right now. View CNN's complete coverage of Flight 370. Hide Caption 12 of 12

Grandparents, a newly graduated engineer, a young couple and a 2-year-old boy were among the hundreds of people on board MH370 when it vanished.

Most of the passengers and crew were from China and Malaysia, but individuals and families from 14 different countries were also on board the missing flight.

Theories

Based on some of the wreckage that's been found, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau determined the wing flaps had been stowed when MH370 crashed

The report suggested the plane had been out of control, spiraling downward at a rate of almost 300 miles per hour at its last satellite transmission.

These findings suggested "two early hypotheses," according to CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo; either that a fire on board the plane incapacitated everyone through smoke or fumes, or that a rapid decompression, perhaps because of a breach in a window, led to their deaths hours before the plane ran out of fuel and spiraled downward.

JUST WATCHED Search for flight MH370 suspended Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Search for flight MH370 suspended 02:43

But investigators still haven't been able to say for sure what caused the crash, and, unfortunately, according to O'Neill and Associates aviation expert Peter Goelz, the debris discovered has so far done little to enlighten authorities -- or the victims' families -- as to what exactly happened.

"All it tells us is what we suspected, in that the plane crashed somewhere in the South Indian Ocean," he told CNN in November. "At some time in the future there will be a quantum leap forward in the ability to look underneath the sea and someone will find it. But that's not for decades," Goelz said. "I think at some point, they'll find it -- it's too big a mystery. But the technology we have now, we can't do it easily or cheaply."

The high-detection devices exploring for MH-370 discovered two shipwrecks during the search -- one some 200 years old and another shipwreck also from the 1800s -- discoveries that give scientists hope that improved technology can one day detect the missing plane.

There's also the possibility that the search teams were looking in the wrong place , according to an Australian government report released in December.

The report recommended that, based on new analysis, a new area to the northeast of the current search area should be searched, approximately 25,000 square kilometers.

However, Australian Transport Minister Chester said the search would not be extended without new evidence.

What's been found

Multiple countries and companies have been involved in the extensive search, which has taken place along a defined arc in the Southern Indian Ocean, where the plane made its last satellite transmission.

Three pieces of the missing plane found off the coast of Africa have been confirmed as coming from MH370, using specific identification numbers.

Photos: MH370 debris Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared on March 8, 2014. As of October 2016, authorities have definitively linked three pieces of debris to the plane, while four other pieces are believed to "almost certainly" come from the missing aircraft. A flaperon from a Boeing 777 was found on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean in July 2015. Authorities later confirmed the debris came from MH370. Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: MH370 debris Two pieces of debris were found in Mozambique, in December 2015 and February 2016. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said both pieces "almost certainly" came from the missing plane. Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: MH370 debris An examination of stenciling and other identifiable features were used to link the debris to MH370. Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: MH370 debris Two more pieces of debris, found in March 2016, were also deemed to have "almost certainly" come from MH370, according to the ATSB. Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: MH370 debris One piece is believed to be from the plane's Rolls Royce engine, while the other matched a Boeing 777 interior closet panel. Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: MH370 debris A piece of aircraft debris found in Tanzania in June 2016 and transported to Australia. The country's Infrastructure and Transport minister said it was confirmed as coming from MH370 in September 2016. Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: MH370 debris A left outboard flap trailing edge section found on the island of Mauritius in May 2016. In October , it was confirmed as coming from MH370. Hide Caption 7 of 7

The ATSB said six other pieces of wreckage found off the African coast were likely to have come from the missing plane, but this wasn't confirmed.

In total, 20 pieces of debris have been brought to the attention of the investigative team.

But those pieces of detritus have not given closure to those whose loved ones remain missing.

"The people who are living with you more than 20 years, and they leave suddenly," Wang said. "We just want them to give us more information. I think there (is) still something, we don't know." </s> The underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been called off nearly three years after the passenger jet disappeared off the radar. The plane went missing shortly after take-off on 8 March 2014 with 239 people on board. Investigators believe it crashed in the Indian Ocean en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The multimillion-dollar hunt was led by Australia, Malaysia and China </s> SYDNEY (AP) – After nearly three years, the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has ended in futility. Crews have finally completed their deep-sea search of a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean without finding a single trace of the plane.

The Joint Agency Coordination Center in Australia said Tuesday that the search had officially been suspended after crews finished their fruitless sweep of the 120,000-square kilometer (46,000-square mile) search zone west of Australia.

The end of the hunt raises the prospect that the world’s greatest aviation mystery may never be solved. For the families of the 239 people on board, the suspension of the search is particularly bitter following a recent acknowledgment by officials that they had been looking for the plane in the wrong place. </s> The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has come to an end with passengers’ families being informed that the effort to find the plane has been suspended.

Next of kin were told in an emailed statement on Tuesday that Australian authorities’ underwater search of 120,000 sq km in the southern Indian ocean had concluded without success.

The search had been ongoing for more than two years.

The MH370 Tripartite Joint Communiqué seen by the Guardian was co-signed by the transport ministers of Malaysia, China and Australia, representing the three countries involved in the search. It was made public at 2pm Malaysia time.

“Today the last search vessel has left the underwater search area. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has not been located in the 120,000 square-kilometre underwater search area in the southern Indian Ocean,” it read.

“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.

“The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness.”

Flight MH370 disappeared on 8 March 2014, vanishing from radar shortly after take-off from Kuala Lumpar en route to Beijing. The plane is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean, claiming the lives of all 239 crew and passengers on board.



The announcement comes six weeks out from the third anniversary of the plane’s disappearance, with the underwater search effort led by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in the so-called “seventh arc” since October 2014 concluding without success.

At a tripartite meeting in July 2016, the three transport ministers had acknowledged the “diminishing” likelihood of finding the plane. If the full 120,000 sq km area was searched without success, the effort was to “not end, but be suspended” indefinitely, they said – reiterating the earlier resolution made in April 2015.

In December, the ATSB said they had a “high degree of confidence” that the wreck would not be found in the tranche of Indian ocean originally pinpointed, instead highlighting a new area of approximately 25,000 sq km – between latitudes 33 degrees south and 36 degrees south – as “the area with the highest probability of containing the wreckage of the aircraft”.

The tripartite statement said Tuesday’s announcement was consistent with its decision made in July 2016.

“Whilst combined scientific studies have continued to refine areas of probability, to date no new information has been discovered to determine the specific location of the aircraft.”

The flight was carrying 152 Chinese nationals and 50 from Malaysia, as well as passengers from Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and the United States.

Chandrika Sharma, of Chennai in India, was among the 239 people on board MH370.

“This decision appears premeditated and a betrayal of the commitment to the families and the public that the governments are committed to the search,” K S Narendran, her husband of 25 years, told the Guardian.

“It must also come as a blow to all this who have worked tirelessly to find answers and find the plane.”

A series of “pings” from what was believed to be one of the black boxes from the plane initially narrowed the search zone to a smaller region of the Indian Ocean. Australia’s then prime minister Tony Abbott and Malaysian transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein both suggested the plane was close to discovery weeks after the crash.

But the hunt for the plane quickly became one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries after a lengthy aerial search yielded no results.



Following the exhaustive aerial survey, the search for the missing plane had a fourth-month hiatus while experts mapped the part of the ocean where the plane was believed to have crashed.

In October 2014 the Australian Transport Safety Bureau began a new phase for the search for MH370, an underwater search effort of 120,000 sq km of the Indian ocean floor.

The search has been a multimillion-dollar effort on the parts of Australia, Malaysia and China. The operation is believed to have cost around AU$180m, paid for by Australia and Malaysia. China donated AU$20m in funding and equipment.

Progress was frustrated by difficulties in reaching the search zone and the largely uncharted part of the Indian Ocean it was believed to have crashed in. The final 20,000 sq km in particular were delayed by poor weather conditions throughout 2016.

But investigators remained optimistic, with Martin Dolan, the head of the ATSB, expressing confidence in March 2016, the two-year anniversary of its disappearance, that the plane would be found within that 120,000 sq km area.

In July 2015 authorities had a breakthrough in the search, when they found debris on the island of Réunion that was later confirmed to be a flaperon from the flight.

Several more pieces of debris were confirmed to have come from MH370, including a wing flap found on an island off the coast of Tanzania in June and sent to Canberra for analysis that was found to be from a Boeing 777.

Investigators say the failure to find the wreckage does not mean all search efforts will end. But those seeking answers for the disappearance of the plane – and those on board – now face the prospect that the fate of MH370 might never be known. </s> Timeline of the 3-year search for missing Malaysia plane

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The end of the deep-sea sonar search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 leaves the largest and most technologically challenging search in aviation history unresolved. Some of the key moments in the search:

March 8, 2014: Air traffic control loses contact with the plane 40 minutes into a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. An air and sea search begins four hours later in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea.

March 15, 2014: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announces that Flight 370 was tracked by military radar doubling back across the Strait of Malacca and was sending satellite signals seven and a half hours after takeoff. The aircraft then flew either northwest toward central Asia as far as Kazakhstan or southwest over the southern Indian Ocean. Signal analysis quickly ruled out the northern flight path.

April 8, 2014: An Australian ship towing a U.S. Navy listening device hears two signals consistent with Flight 370's flight recorders west of Australia. Submerged a month, the recorders are near the end of their battery lives. "I'm now optimistic that we will find the aircraft, or what is left of the aircraft, in the not-too-distant future," search coordinator Angus Houston says. When the initial sonar search yields nothing, it's expanded to an area of 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles).

April 28, 2014: The air search ends after failing to see a single piece of debris in 4.6 million square kilometers (1.8 million square miles) of ocean.

May 28, 2014: The underwater survey near where the acoustic signals were detected ends, with investigators concluding the area is not the final resting place of Flight 370 and they may never know the signals' origins.

June 26, 2014: Officials announce that Flight 370 most likely crashed southwest of the most recently suspected crash site, about 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) off Australia's west coast. The new 60,000-square kilometer (23,000-square mile) search area falls within the waters already searched by air, to no avail.

Aug. 28, 2014: The search area is refined south after analysis of a failed attempted satellite phone call to Flight 370 suggests the plane turned south earlier than previously thought.

Jan. 29, 2015: Malaysia formally declares Flight 370 an accident and says all 239 people on board are presumed dead, upsetting families but letting them obtain death certificates and start legal claims.

March 8, 2015: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott doubles the area of the search to 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles). Still, only 40 percent of the original zone has been searched. "It can't go on forever, but as long as there are reasonable leads, the search will go on," Abbott said. "We are reasonably confident of finding the plane."

March 10, 2015: The sonar search discovers the wreck of a 19th century cargo ship nearly 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) below the surface.

July 29, 2015: A wing part known as a flaperon found on Reunion Island, east of Madagascar, is confirmed as the first piece of the Boeing 777 to be recovered. More than 20 pieces certainly or highly likely to be parts of Flight 370 have since been found on coastlines throughout the Indian Ocean.

Dec. 19, 2015: The sonar search discovers a second shipwreck from the 19th century.

July 28, 2016: Australian officials confirm that data recovered from a home flight simulator owned by Flight 370 captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah showed that someone had used the device to plot a course to the southern Indian Ocean, bolstering speculation that he stole the plane in a premeditated plot.

Dec. 20, 2016: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau releases a report that says Flight 370 is unlikely to be in the 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) that has been almost completely searched and is more likely in a 25,000-square kilometer (9,700-square mile) area immediately to the north. </s> Three years after the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysian Airline flight MH370, the three countries collaborating in the search for the missing aircraft have announced a suspension of the search.

Flight MH370 disappeared en route to Beijing from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board and a statement from China, Malaysia and Australia who were leading search efforts disclosed, “Despite every effort using the best science available … the search has not been able to locate the aircraft,”

Much of the search has been focused on the Indian Ocean sea floor but the only debris of the plane were found washed up on Mauritius, the French island Reunion and an island off the coast of Tanzania.

A support group for the families of the victims called Voice 370 criticized the decision to halt the search. “In our view, extending the search to the new area defined by the experts is an inescapable duty owed to the flying public in the interest of aviation safety,” Voice 370 said. </s> A NEW scan of the Indian Ocean floor for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been expanded after search vessels exhausted the main area where the doomed plane was believed to be resting.

Nearly 80,000 square kilometres have been search since January without finding any sign of the wreckage.

But the company looking for the plane said it is still determined to find it.

This comes despite earlier hopes that a 25,000-square-kilometre area most likely to contain the missing aircraft MH370 had been identified.

The search enters its final phase this week, more than four years after the jet went down.

Ocean Infinity, the American technology company conducting the latest search, said in an update that it had scanned up to 1,300 square kilometres per day since launching its mission far off the west coast of Australia in late January.

It has searched both inside and outside an area identified by Australian authorities and said that its lack of success had led it to look further north than the main search area.

“Whilst it’s disappointing there has been no sign of MH370 in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau search area and further north, there is still some search time remaining,” Ocean Infinity chief executive officer Oliver Plunkett said.

“Everyone at Ocean Infinity remains absolutely determined for the remainder of the search.

“As the team head in to port after another six weeks’ hard work, I am pleased to say our technology has performed exceptionally well throughout the search and that we have collected significant amounts of high quality data in which we have full confidence. The results from the highly challenging Broken Ridge feature are particularly impressive.”

The search vessel Seabed Constructor headed to Fremantle for resupply and crew rotation before resuming its search.

This will be the last phase of the search, before weather will make further scanning not worthwhile.

Flight 370 disappeared March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people aboard. No transmissions were received from the aircraft after its first 38 minutes of flight, but it is believed to have crashed in the far southern Indian Ocean based on the drift patterns of crash debris that washed ashore on distant beaches.

The governments of Malaysia, China and Australia called off the nearly three-year official search in January 2017. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s final report on the search conceded authorities were no closer to knowing the reasons for the plane’s disappearance or its exact location.

In January, the Malaysian government pledged to pay Texas-based Ocean Infinity up to $70 million if it could find the wreckage or black boxes of the aircraft within 90 days. Ocean Infinity uses up to eight autonomous vehicles capable of operating in depths up to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet), and Plunkett had launched the search by saying his company had “a realistic prospect” of finding the aircraft.

He said that its technology had performed “exceptionally well,” with “significant amounts of high quality data” collected.

The company’s Seabed Constructor research vessel is stopping in the West Australian port of Fremantle for resupply and crew rotation before returning to the search until it’s forced to quit in the southern hemisphere’s winter. Plunkett’s statement indicated Ocean Infinity’s search could be halted before mid-June due to weather conditions at sea.

WHY WAS THE SEARCH CALLED OFF?

The Sun reports, nearly a quarter-century after his slow-speed police chase in the SUV was televised live to captivated viewers around the world, the former grid great will land before the cameras aThe missing aircraft, which was carrying 239 passengers and crew, vanished on March 8, 2014 - with researchers saying they had been looking in the wrong place.

Despite experts never having found the body of any of its passengers, the hunt for MH370 was set to end after nearly three years.

On January 17, 2017, it was officially suspended by officials in Australia.

Only 33 pieces of wreckage were found during the hunt, which saw investigators searching the deep sea areas near to the suspected crash site in the Indian Ocean, and scanning the water from the air.

News the search teams had abandoned their mission saw a series of conspiracy theories resurface – so here are the key facts about the missing plane.

On the third anniversary of when MH370 went missing, the Australian government minister in charge of the suspended seabed search told victims’ families and friends at a church service that he remained hopeful that the plane would be found.

Darren Chester, minister for infrastructure and transport, said: “While to date we have been unsuccessful, we remain hopeful that at some stage in the future, there will be a breakthrough, the aircraft will be found, and we will be able to answer more of your questions.”

The Malaysian Government added: “We remain ever hopeful that we will be able to find the answers we seek when the credible evidence becomes available.”

On October 19, 2017, it was confirmed the Malaysian government was aiming to strike a deal with a US exploration firm to continue the search for the downed aircraft.

Proposals had been issued to Malaysia from US company Ocean Infinity, Dutch firm Fugro and a third unidentified company.

“Yes, we are negotiating with Ocean Infinity, but the agreement has not been finalised,” said Malaysia’s deputy transport minister Aziz Kaprawi.ain Thursday — this time from the Nevada prison he has called home for almost nine years after an armed-robbery conviction.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur carrying 239 people on board.

They included Chinese calligraphers, a couple on their way home to their young sons after a long-delayed honeymoon and a construction worker who hadn’t been home in a year.

The plane had recorded 7,525 take-offs and landings as well as 53,420 flight hours when it made its last journey.

The MH370 Boeing was seen for the last time on military radar at 2.14am, close to the south of Phuket island in the Strait of Malacca.

Before that, Malaysian authorities believe the last words heard from the plane, from either the pilot or co-pilot, was “Good night Malaysian three seven zero”.

Half an hour later, the airline lost contact with the plane. It had been due to land at around 6.30am.

Evidence from a military radar suggested the plane had suddenly changed course.

Dozens of rescue planes and ships moved their search efforts to the sea west of Malaysia before the country’s Prime Minister Najib Razak claimed MH370 had been deliberately diverted by someone on board.

He added that they believed it had continued flying for more than six hours after losing contact with air control.

In the end, the search spanned to almost three million square mile - which is 1.5 per cent of the earth’s surface.

A week after disappearing satellite images of possible debris appeared to suggest that the plane crashed in the Indian Ocean, south-west of Australia.

But the search for the black box in this area was abandoned after nothing was found.

Now it seems that the search took place in the wrong location.

An international investigation revealed that the search area needs to be extended to an untouched 25,000 kilometre square area in the southern Indian Ocean.

In April 2017, a report by Australia’s national science body CSIRO supported the theory that the plane’s wreckage was north of the original search area. The report used data and analysis from ocean testing of an actual Boeing 777 flaperon.

At the end of August 2017, a diplomat investigating the doomed flight was shot dead in Madagascar’s capital in what is being called an assassination.

American adventurer-detective Blaine Gibson, who has been gathering suspected MH370 debris as it washes up on Madagascar and Mozambique, said Mr Raza had been due to deliver new items to Malaysian investigators in Kuala Lumpur.

In early 2018, conspiracy theories were sparked when the search vessel hunting for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from radar for 80 hours.

It is still unclear what caused the Seabed Constructor ship to lose its tracking on January 31.

The company, Ocean Infinity, was offered in excess of £39.5million if it found the missing plane within 90 days.

They conducted an 80,000 square kilometre scan of where the plane was thought to have crashed but did not find any trace of it on the sea bed.

On July 29, 2015 — more than a year after the plane’s disappearance — debris was found by volunteers cleaning a beach in St Andre, Reunion.

A week later investigators confirmed the debris did belong to MH370, but it did not help to locate the plane as it had drifted in the water.

On October 7, 2017, it was announced that two wing flaps found in Mauritius came from the missing flight.

Some shocked relatives found it difficult to believe that this was genuinely debris from the plane.

They said they think their loved ones are still alive and are being held at “an undisclosed location for unknown reasons”.

In August 2017, Australia released satellite imagery which it said showed 12 objects which were probably man-made floating near the suspected crash site.

The images were captured by a French military satellite two weeks after MH370 vanished, but were never released to the public.

If correct the French photographs point to an impact site in part of the Indian Ocean which was not originally searched, supporting the CSIRO April report.

WHAT HAS DEBRIS FROM MH370 REVEALED?

The wing flaps showed that the plane was not in a landing position when it plunged into the ocean, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said.

If the pilot was planning a controlled ditching of the plane, the wing flaps would have been configured for landing.

As this was not the case, a report by the bureau concluded that the aircraft appeared to be “out of control” during its final journey.

Chief search operator Peter Foley said: “You can never be 100 per cent. We are very reluctant to express absolute certainty.

“You can draw your own conclusions as to whether that means someone was in control.”

If someone had been controlling the plane it could have glided much further than thought - meaning rescuers could have been searching the wrong area.

More than 20 bits of debris suspected or confirmed to be from MH370 have washed ashore on coastlines throughout the Indian Ocean.

However, a deep-sea sonar search for the main underwater wreckage found nothing.

WHAT ARE THE THEORIES ABOUT MH370?

Russian president Vladimir Putin was accused of being involved in the hijacking of MH370. by a US Science writer. Jeff Wise claimed Putin “spoofed” the plane’s navigation data so it could fly unnoticed into Baikonur Cosmodrome so he could “hurt the West”.

French ex-airline director Marc Dugain accused the US military of shooting down the plane because they feared it had been hijacked. A book called Flight MH370 – The Mystery also suggested that it had been shot down accidentally by US-Thai joint jet fighters during a military exercise and covered it up.

Malaysia police chief Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar suggested that the crash could have been suicide. He said that someone on-board could have taken out a large life insurance package before getting on the plane, so they could treat their family or pay back the money they owed.

Historian and writer Norman Davies suggested MH370 could have been remotely hacked and flown to a secret location as a result of sensitive material being carried aboard the jet.

Twitter users claim a terrifying voicemail sent to their phones could have links to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, alien life and an impending Doomsday date.The creepy message features a robotic voice droning out to an automated message in NATO phonetic alphabet.

Australian amateur crash investigator Peter McMahon has claimed images from Google Earth show what he believes is the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines plane.

He says it is located under the surface ten miles south of small islet Round Island - an area not included in the search operation by experts.

Images have emerged showing what could be the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and it’s covered in bullet holes, an expert has claimed.

The Google Earth pictures show what appears to be the outline of the plane, which vanished along with 239 passengers and crew, under the surface of waters just north of Mauritius.

WHAT DID THE FINAL REPORT SAY?

In October 2017, Australian investigators delivered their final report into MH370’s disappearance and the subsequent search.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) - the agency which co-ordinated the search has said the fact the plane has yet to be found is a “great tragedy”.

ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood said: “I hope, however, that they can take some solace in the fact that we did all we could do to find answers.”

The report states that while the plane has yet to be found, the hugely expensive search, the most expensive in aviation history, has managed to rule out large areas of the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Australia.

The report said: “The underwater search has eliminated most of the high probability areas yielded by reconstructing the aircraft’s flight path and the debris drift studies conducted in the past 12 months have identified the most likely area with increasing precision.

Parts of his article originally appeared in The Sun and are republished here with permission.
The underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been suspended.