Flight MH370 Update: Australia Slashes Funds For Malaysia Airlines Plane As Search Nears End
Suman Varandani
A family member of a passenger on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370,
which went missing in 2014, holds a banner during a gathering in front
of the Malaysian Embassy on the second anniversary of the disappearance
of MH370, in Beijing, March 8, 2016. Photo: REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
The Australian government's Federal Budget
Tuesday did not provide extra funding for Malaysia Airlines Flight
MH370, fading hopes that the search for the missing plane will continue
after the July deadline. The search for Flight MH370, which went missing
on March 8, 2014, has been ongoing for more than two years in a remote
part of the southern Indian Ocean.
On Tuesday, Treasurer Scott Morrison
reportedly handed down the 2016 Budget, which did not include any
additional money for the Boeing 777-200's search. The Australian
Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is leading the search
operation, also faced job cuts and saw its funding slashed massively
from $102 million this financial year to $19.4 million per year after
the end of search, Herald Sun reported.
Australia has already spent nearly $90 million in a desperate attempt to find the wreckage. In its latest search update
Wednesday, ATSB said it has scoured more than 40,000 sq. miles of
the total search area of 46,332 sq. miles, with operations expected to
be called off in July. The agency also gave updates on the search
vessels scouring the ocean floor.
Amid growing concerns over the diminishing
possibility of an extension of the search operation, families of the 239
people who had boarded the plane hoped for answers to the mystery
behind the plane's disappearance as several debris pieces were found
over the last few months on the coastlines of South Africa and
Mauritius.
Last month, ATSB announced that stenciled codes
on two debris pieces found along the coast of the southeast African
nation of Mozambique "almost certainly" proved they originated from
Flight MH370. Australian authorities also said that two other items
— the South Africa piece with the Rolls-Royce logo and the piece found
on the Rodrigues Island in Mauritius — were being analyzed in ATSB
laboratories to determine their origin.
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