Families Plan To Raise $15 million To Help Search For Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

The families of those onboard missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 launched efforts Saturday to raise at least $15 million to fund a private search as they marked the third anniversary of the plane’s disappearance.

Malaysia, Australia and China suspended a nearly three-year search in the southern Indian Ocean on Jan. 17 after it failed to find any trace of the plane. The jet disappeared March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

Jacquita Gomes, whose husband was a flight attendant on the plane, said families have no choice but to take matters into their own hands by raising the money.

“What happened to MH370 is a mystery, but it should not go down in the history books as a mystery. Everybody wants answers,” Gomes said at a three-hour remembrance event at a shopping mall near Kuala Lumpur.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said in a speech at the event that a final report with information and analysis on what happened to the plane based on available data and evidence would be released this year. He didn’t say when.

He said authorities would step up efforts to comb for plane debris along the African coast. So far, Liow said, 27 pieces of debris have been found, including two new pieces found off Africa about two weeks ago. He said that three pieces of debris have been confirmed to be from Flight 370, and that five more are “almost certain” to be from the plane.

Despite the suspension of the $160 million hunt for the plane, Liow said authorities haven’t abandoned all efforts to locate the wreckage. He told reporters that an international team of experts in Australia is still studying whether an area north of the previous search area could be the plane’s final resting place.

Liow said there was an 85 percent chance that the new 25,000-square-kilometer (15,535-square-mile) area could be the crash site, and that experts needed more time to study satellite images, debris flow and other clues.

“Funding has never been an issue, but we have to be sure, we need credible evidence,” said Liow, who was making his first appearance at a Flight 370 anniversary event organized by the families.

Gomes said that through online fundraising and corporate donations, families hope to raise at least $15 million to pursue the search in the new area recommended by the experts.

More than 30 family members from Malaysia, Australia, China, India and France went on stage and spoke about the urgency to find closure. They released eight white pigeons and shouted “Search on.”

“We will keep fighting, we will keep trying,” said Danica Weeks of Australia, whose husband was a passenger on Flight 370. “We have no peace at this point. It’s painful. It doesn’t get better with time.”

MALAYSIA: Likely, Latest Debris From Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

There is a "high probability" debris found in Mozambique is from a Boeing 777, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai has said - noting Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is the only missing 777.

Mr Liow said the area where the debris was found matches investigators' predictions of where debris would end up.

He said a Malaysian team with representatives from the country's civil aviation department, Malaysia Airlines and investigators will be heading to Mozambique.

The debris is still in Mozambique and Mr Liow said it is unclear when it will be sent to Australia for examination.

Authorities in Mozambique are helping to comb the area where it was found for other possible debris.

Meanwhile, an American who found the debris said he initially thought it was part of a much smaller plane.

Blaine Gibson, who has been searching the region's beaches for the debris, said a boat operator who took him to a sandbank named Paluma called him over after seeing a piece of debris with "NO STEP" written on it.

Mr Gibson said the discovery happened after he decided to go "somewhere exposed to the ocean" on the last day of a trip to the coastal town of Vilankulo.

Earlier, the family of the senior pilot from MH370 said he must not be made a scapegoat for its disappearance.

The Boeing 777 disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The family of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah defended the pilot.

"When the search (for the plane) revealed nothing, they came back to this theory, but it's only a theory," said Capt Zaharie's eldest sister Sakinab Shah.

"If you have nothing tangible and nothing by way of evidence, it's tantamount to predicting he is guilty until proven innocent. This sets us back in the Dark Ages."

She said it was "very convenient" to make her brother the scapegoat to absolve the airline from claims or protect the Malaysian government from possible cover-ups and US airline manufacturer Boeing from losing business.

"Please do not judge him based on theories.... don't blame him unless there is evidence. I want to say that (he's) innocent until proven guilty. That is the mantra of modern civilisation," she said.