A PRIVATE hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will end in the coming days, a search firm said today, four years after the plane’s disappearance sparked one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.

The jet vanished in March 2014 with 239 people – mostly from China – on board, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

No sign of the plane was found in a 120,000 sq km search zone at sea, and the Australia-led hunt, the largest in aviation history, was suspended in January last year.

After pressure from families, the former Barisan Nasional government struck a deal with US exploration firm Ocean Infinity to restart the search in January, on the condition that it would be paid only if the Boeing 777 or its black boxes were found.

The firm stood to make up to US$70 million (RM280 million) if successful, but has not found any sign of the aircraft despite scouring the seabed with some of the world’s most high-tech search equipment.

The hunt was meant to officially end last month, but was extended. However, the new Pakatan Harapan government announced last week that the search was set to end.

The Texas-based Ocean Infinity said in a statement today “its current search for the wreckage of… Flight MH370 is shortly coming to an end”.

A spokesman said the hunt will end in the coming days, without giving a precise date.

The new hunt covered an area of 25,000 sq km in the southern Indian Ocean, north of the previous search zone.

The ship conducting the hunt, Seabed Constructor, is a Norwegian research vessel carrying 65 crew, including two members of the Malaysian navy as the government’s representatives.

Only three confirmed fragments of MH370 have been found, all of them on western Indian Ocean shores, including a 2m wing part known as a “flaperon”.

It was reported that Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the contract for Ocean Infinity would end today. – AFP, May 29, 2018.