MH370 - Plane Likely To Be Found By July Say Investigators

Two years after Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared, Malaysia and Australia stated, on Tuesday March 8, that there was still hope to solve the MH370 flight enigma, one of the biggest of the civil aviation.

The Malaysian company's aircraft had vanished on 8 March 2014 shortly after it took off from Kuala Lumpur and heading to Beijing, with 289 people on board. It is most likely that it would have crashed into the Indian Ocean.

In a statement on Tuesday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he remained "hopeful that MH370 will be found", but once the search zone is exhausted the three governments would meet to determine the way forward.

"We remain committed to doing everything within our means to solving what is an agonising mystery for the loved ones of those who were lost," he said.

But Martin Dolan, head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) which is co-ordinating the search, told the BBC the governments' positions were unchanged and the search would end then, "unless new and significant information comes to light".

Many relatives want the operation to continue until the plane is found.

Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester also expressed hope on the anniversary, saying finding the plane would "give answers to the world, in particular the families of missing loved ones, about what happened".

On Monday, relatives of 12 Chinese passengers filed lawsuits in Beijing.

Lawyer Zhang Qihuai said they were seeking a range of damages, but their goal was to determine the cause of the accident and those who were responsible.

Families of 32 other passengers, mostly Chinese, have filed a separate lawsuit in Malaysia, and in the US, 43 passengers' relatives have sued in New York.

There are believed to be a number of other cases under way around the world.

Under international agreements, relatives have two years following an air accident to begin legal action.

“At some point, whatever the total of the evidence is, is going to have to be assessed and a conclusion reached as to the most likely solution to the mystery,” says Dolan.

“That’s the way we see our job. That’s the way our Malaysian colleagues see their job. And that will happen. The only question really is, how extensive that information will be.”