Crew members looking out the cockpit windows of a RNZAF P3 Orion during search operations for wreckage and debris of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Nick Perry, AFP file photo

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The latest search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been suspended, Kuala Lumpur's transport minister said, more than a decade after the plane went missing.

Malaysia agrees to resume search for missing MH370 plane

"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 sent to AFP on Thursday by his aide.

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 just one month after authorities said the search had resumed, following earlier failed attempts that covered vast swaths of the Indian Ocean.

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An initial Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometers (46,300 square miles) 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.

"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.

"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.

AVIATION MYSTERY

Loke said in December that a new 15,000 square kilometer area of the southern Indian Ocean would be scoured by Ocean Infinity.

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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.

The plane's disappearance has long been the subject of theories -- ranging from the credible to outlandish -- including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue.

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A final report into the tragedy released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others were from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, and elsewhere.

Relatives of passengers lost on the flight have continued to demand answers from Malaysian authorities.

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.

Families of Malaysia Airlines plane crash victims call for new search

Attendees of the gathering shouted, "Give us back our loved ones!"

Some held placards asking, "When will the 11 years of waiting and torment end?"

— By Raevathi Supramaniam, Agence France-Presse

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