The search for the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 will end May 29, Malaysia’s new transport minister said.
Transport minister Anthony Loke said the latest search was due to end in April but was extended twice.
The country’s authorities entered into an agreement with Texas-based Ocean Infinity in January to resume the hunt for the plane, one year after the official search in the southern Indian Ocean by Australia, Malaysia and China was called off.
Loke said the government would decide the next course of action next week.
The Malaysia Airlines plane vanished on March 8, 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
So far the search has not turned up anything that could shed light on one of the world’s biggest aviation mysteries.
“There will be no more extensions. It cannot continue forever. Let’s wait until May 29 and we will then decide how to proceed,” Loke said.
The latest development comes after Australian investigators rejected claims that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was deliberately brought down by the pilot.
Recent speculation that the jet was the subject of a “controlled ditching” into the sea was dismissed on Tuesday by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
The bureau maintains that the pilot was unconscious during the final moments.
