A year on, families wait for answers to MH370 mystery

The centrepiece will be a Day of Remembrance, organised by the families at the outdoor courtyard of one of Kuala Lumpur’s most popular malls. Malaysia Airlines is holding a private ceremony. 

Meanwhile, search teams continue to affirm their belief that wreckage will be found in the Indian Ocean — but amid warnings over the timescale for the arduous, costly operation there are signs that the determination to resolve aviation’s greatest mystery may be waning. Families of the missing are awaiting an interim report from Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation, due to be released on the anniversary of the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 in the early hours of March 8, 2014, as it travelled from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board. The majority of the missing are Chinese nationals. 

The Australian-led search has now trawled around 43 per cent of the 60,000 sq km priority zone in the southern Indian Ocean. Underwater sonar mapping revealed extremely mountainous terrain, making the search particularly difficult. With the budget so far standing at A$120m (£62m), Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, this week said he could “not promise that the search will go on at this intensity forever”.

The underwater search is expected to run until May before weather conditions deteriorate and force a pause. Paul Kennedy, project director aboard Fugro Discovery, one of the four ships hunting for MH370, has spoken of the challenges facing crew in the remote waters. “Seven days’ sail from the nearest civilisation, we’re an awful long way from serious medical facilities. Essentially it’s like Antarctica. People are working 84 hours a week, but you don’t go home, it’s rough and you don’t 

get much sleep.”