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ByEileenNg The Associated Press PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA The more than two-year- long hunt for Malaysia Air- lines Flight 370 will be sus- pended once the current search area in the Indian Ocean has been completely scoured, the three countries conducting the operation announced Friday, possibly ending all hopes of solving aviation's greatest mystery. Some families of the lost plane's 239 passengers and crew were angry over the decision to stop what is al- ready the most expensive search in aviation history, having cost 180 million Australian dollars ($135 million). Others continued to hold out hope. "In the absence of new evidence, Malaysia, Aus- tralia and China have col- lectively decided to suspend the search upon comple- tion of the 120,000-square- kilometer (46,300-square- mile) search area," Malay- sian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said after a meeting with his Australian and Chinese counterparts. There are fewer than 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles) left to be searched. In a statement read by Liow, the ministers acknowledged that "the likelihood of finding the air- craft is fading." The ministers said the search could be revived, but only if new evidence emerges. "Should credible new in- formationemergewhichcan be used to identify the spe- cific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given in determining next steps," their joint statement said. AsLiowandtheothertwo ministers were addressing the news conference, rep- resentatives of the passen- gers' families stood outside the building holding plac- ards calling on authorities to keep trying. "Find the plane, ease our pain," read one. "We don't want the sus- pension to be just a way to let everyone calm down and slowly forget about it," said Grace Subathirai Na- than, a Malaysian whose mother, Anne Daisy, was on the flight. "We want them to be doing something in the interim to look for new in- formation." Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said experts will continue to analyze data and inspect debris but added, "Future searches must have a high level of success to justify raising hopes of loved ones." The Boeing 777 vanished on a flight from Kuala Lum- pur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. It is believed to have turned back west and then south before dropping into the Indian Ocean west of Australia, where the search has been concentrated. Much of what happened to the plane remains a mys- tery, though the Malay- sian government has con- cluded that it was deliber- ately steered off course. Liow said the search, hampered by bad weather and damaged equipment, will end by December. Although the ministers were at pains to say they were not permanently end- ing the search, it is evident that it is highly unlikely to continue after that, given how few clues have emerged since the disappearance of the plane. Confirmed and possible debris has been found off East Africa thou- sands of kilometers (miles) away, but authorities have said the wreckage has pro- vided no information that might help locate the bulk of the aircraft. Some relatives remained hopeful that the search will resume one day. "I feel encouraged. Fear- ing the worst, we now have something to hang on to," said K.S. Narenderan, who lost his wife, Chandrika Sharma,ontheflight."Iread into it a commitment to stay engaged in the search and to holdthemselvesaccountable to pursue the truth." "You can suspend, but don't stop there," said Jac- quita Gonzales, whose hus- band Patrick Gomes was a crew member on Flight 370. "Suspension can be five years, 15 years, 20 years. ... It's a long wait, so go back to the drawing board." Representatives from Voice 370, a group repre- senting family members of the plane's passengers and crew, met with Australian officials in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and urged the governments to suspend the search until new funds can be raised. They also called for a wider base of funding, including from Boeing and other plane and component manufacturers. The three governments are involved because the airline was Malaysian, most of the passengers were Chi- nese, and the suspected crash site is off southwest- ern Australia. Several relatives of Chi- nese victims said they felt betrayed by the decision. "I will never agree with the decision to suspend the search," said Zhang Qian, whose wife, Wang Houbin, had been on board MH 370. "We will definitely gather to protest it and I have lost confidence to the Malaysian government." But Jeanette Maguire, whose sister and brother- in-law Cathy and Bob Law- ton, from Brisbane, Austra- lia, were aboard Flight 370, said that while the decision is "very difficult to accept," she understood searchers needed more information to continue, "because it's cost- ing an absolute fortune." There have been several theories surrounding the disappearance and the final hours of the flight, includ- ing that the plane glided into the water and didn't dive in, indicating a con- trolled ditching. "We do not have any ev- idence to confirm that it was controlled ditching," Liow said. He said the plane debris found so far "did not iden- tify the exact location of the aircraft" but the location of the debris is consistent with the drift modeling pattern done by Australia, which indicated a general search area. Western Australia Uni- versity oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi, who has done extensive drift modeling, has said the plane could have crashed slightly north of the cur- rent search area. Pattiaratchi's model- ing was based on how long the first piece of confirmed Flight 370 wreckage took to reach La Reunion off the Af- rican coast , an island where confirmed plane debris was found, and his team's calcu- lations of the effects of cur- rents, wind and waves on drifting debris. Drift modeling was not used to define the search area because no parts of Flight 370 had been found before a wing flap washed up on La Reunion island a year ago. The search area was determined by analy- sis of satellite signals that the plane emitted in its fi- nal hours. But the Australian Trans- port Safety Bureau has pre- viously said wreckage found on the southwestern shores of the Indian Ocean was consistent with the plane crashing in the expansive search area. MALAYSIAN JET Search for Flight 370 will be suspended, possibly forever PHOTOSBYVINCENTTHIAN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS From le to right; Australia's Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester, Malaysia's Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai and China's Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang shake hands a er the join press conference of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on Friday. Family members of passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370that went missing on hold up placards a er a joint press conference by Malaysia, China and Australia in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on Friday. InPrintEveryTuesday-Thursday-Saturday Online:Publishes24/7 www.redbluffdailynews.com Threeadditionalonline locations at no extra cost! 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