by AFIQ AZIZ / pic by TMR FILE PIX

THE Ministry of Transport (MoT) has denied any interest to restart the search of the missing wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Bhd’s flight MH370, as reported by The Daily Telegraph on Sunday.

According to a statement by the ministry yesterday, the investigation could only be resumed if the government obtains new evidence that is handed to Putrajaya officially.

“While MoT deeply empathises with the family members of the victims and stands by them, the ministry has not made any decision

to relaunch any new searches as there has not been any new credible evidence to initiate such a process,” the statement read.

Quoting News Corp Australia, a media conglomerate from Down Under, The Daily Telegraph reported that a fresh investigation for the missing aircraft that departed from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China, in 2014 is set for a restart in the next couple of months.

The report claimed that new clues had emerged which could trigger a fresh search, after it was halted some 20 months ago.

The initial search recorded 32 pieces of debris, claimed to be from MH370, with the last discovered pieces thought to be from the internal fin of a vortex generator.

The report said families of victims and the Malaysian government are currently looking to send seabed searchers, Ocean Infinity, on a new quest to find pieces of the missing plane.

“Officials are also hoping new debris and analysis will provide investigators a clearer priority search,” the report claimed.

While dismissing the news, MoT stated that consultation with both China and Australia will also be required should a decision be made with regard to relaunching a search.

The Malaysia Airlines aircraft went off radar on March 8, 2014, with 239 people mostly from China on board, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

No sign of the wreckage was found in a 120,000sq km Indian Ocean search grid by the Australianled hunt, which is also the largest in aviation history.

US exploration firm Ocean Infinity had mounted a fresh search for the missing plane on a “no find, no fee basis” in 2018 for several months.

The search, which utilised sophisticated drones to scour the seabed, did not locate the Boeing 777 aircraft.

Deteriorating weather also made operating in the area impossible, bringing the hunt to an end in May 2018.

In July 2018, the MoT released a 495-page fresh report highlighting some key findings of the Malaysian investigation.

Among others, the report stated that the plane conducted a manoeuvre that had to be done under manual control before it went missing.

The latest official report released by Putrajaya on MH370 dismissed numerous conspiracy theories about the plane and its pilot, besides ruling out plane malfunction as a contributing factor.