The final stage of the official search for MH370 has begun, with a lone vessel departing the West Australian coast to make one last sweep of the southern Indian Ocean in a bid to solve aviation's greatest mystery.
MV Fugro Equator left Fremantle on Monday night to scour the deep ocean trenches that might hold wreckage of the Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board, including six Australians.
If the Malaysia Airlines plane is not found, the search will be called off in January or February, although Australian, Malaysian and Chinese authorities have agreed to resume the operation if new, compelling information emerges.
"It has been a heroic undertaking but we have to prepare ourselves for the prospect that we may not find MH370 in the coming weeks, although we remain hopeful," Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester told the West Australian newspaper.
His comments came after the association representing passengers and crew, Voice370, reported the end of their first privately funded search for debris on the shores of Madagascar.
Debris from MH370 has so far washed up there and on other parts of Africa's east coast, but relatives were dismayed in July that Malaysian authorities had failed to pick up more potential pieces from the large island.
The group of seven people representing Voice370 found one piece on Riake Beach, Isle St Marie, last week and tweeted on Monday that another item of interest had been handed in by a Madagascar local.
Danica Weeks, whose husband Paul was on the flight, said the families needed closure to move on with their lives.
"I remember someone saying to me about a month after this happened 'what if they never find it?' and I went 'don't ever say that'. I can't handle that," Ms Weeks recently told AAP.
"I've put that out of my brain for so long, and I've had to be realistic and believe it a little bit, but I'm still holding on to that hope while they're still searching, they'll find something.
"Once they stop, I don't know."
Share
