He said so far, 90 per cent of the current 120,000 square kilometres of the search area in the southern Indian Ocean have been completed, but still without a trace of the missing aircraft.
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The use of the term “suspended” was an apparent nod to anguished families who have stepped up demands recently for authorities not to fully abandon efforts to locate the aircraft.
Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 with 239 passengers and crew on board while en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
“In the absence of credible new evidence to assist in identifying the sitting location of the aircraft, a 3rd search is not viable”, said Darren Chester, Australia’s Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation.
The statement said that despite the best efforts put into the search, the likelihood of discovering the aircraft was fading.
Ms Grace Nathan, daughter of missing passenger Anne Daisy, said: “We need to know what new information they need in order to continue the search”.
While the flight’s disappearance remains a mystery, investigators believe that the plane was intentionally flown thousands of miles off course before it eventually crashed somewhere over the southern Indian Ocean near Australia.
Representatives of Australia, China, and Malaysia said the search could be revived if “credible new information” emerged about the location of the airliner.
Dutch geoscience and sea survey expert firm Fugro, which was contracted to provide three of its sonar-equipped vessels to search for the lost plane, has admitted yesterday that it may have been searching in the wrong area all along. “All I want is to have my family members back”.
The search, originally scheduled to end in June, has been hampered due to bad weather.
Liow also said cost was not a factor in deciding to suspend the search.
But Jeanette Maguire, whose sister and brother-in-law Cathy and Bob Lawton, from Brisbane, Australia, were aboard Flight 370, said that while the decision is “very hard to accept”, she understood searchers needed more information to continue, “because it’s costing an absolute fortune”.
That was the first time officials directly involved in the search have lent some support to contested theories that someone was in control during the flight’s final moments.
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Asked if the flaperon found on the shore of La Reunion Island had any indication of controlled ditching, Liow said there has not been any evidence to substantiate the claim.
