“They have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the search at the end of this year,” Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a voice recording.
“Right now, it’s not the season,” Loke said in the recording, which was made during an event at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday.
The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has not been found.
Loke’s comments come a little over a month after authorities said the search had resumed, following earlier failed attempts that covered vast swathes of the Indian Ocean.
An initial Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometres in the Indian Ocean over three years, but found hardly any trace of the plane other than a few pieces of debris.
Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year.
“Whether or not it will be found will be subject to the search, nobody can anticipate,” Loke said, referring to the wreckage of the plane.
Loke said in December that a new 15,000 square kilometre area of the southern Indian Ocean would be scoured by Ocean Infinity.
The most recent mission was conducted on the same “no find, no fee” principle as Ocean Infinity’s previous search, with the government only paying out if the firm finds the aircraft.
Two thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others were from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and elsewhere.
Family members of Chinese passengers gathered in Beijing outside government offices and the Malaysian embassy last month on the 11th anniversary of the flight’s disappearance.
Some held placards asking, “When will the 11 years of waiting and torment end?” (AFP)
