The families of passengers onboard the doomed Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 say they'll mount a debris-hunting trip to Madagascar to search for clues about what happened to the missing plane.
Investigators have identified six pieces of wreckage which have either definitely or almost certainly come from the jet, which vanished with 239 people including six Australians while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014.
The family association Voice 370 says the debris collected so far has all been found off Africa's east coast, but there has been no systematic, organised search by investigators.
The group says next-of-kin believe the search will provide answers and closure. An ongoing search in the southern Indian Ocean, where the plane is believed to have crashed, has been fruitless and could be suspended soon.
The Voice 370 statement said a seven-member team will focus their search along high potential sites based on drift modelling, largely focusing in areas on and around Ile Saint Marie, a tropical island off Madagascar's east coast.
The group said they may set up an incentive system using their own funds to encourage the search for debris, and will aim to set up a notification system and local collection point for potential aircraft debris.
So far, none of the six pieces of debris has helped narrow down the precise location of the main underwater wreckage. Investigators need to find that in order to locate the flight data recorders that could help explain why the plane veered so far off course.
Search crews are expected to finish their sweep of the 120,000-square kilometre search zone in the Indian Ocean next month.
Oceanographers have been analysing wing flaps found in Tanzania and on the French island of Reunion to see if they might be able to identify a potential new search area through drift modelling.
