Search teams have ended a renewed hunt for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 without having located the crash site of the missing Boeing 777-200ER.
Undersea specialist Ocean Infinity admits the failure to find the aircraft is "extremely disappointing" but states that it hopes to be involved in any future effort to trace the jet.
Flight MH370 disappeared en route to Beijing in March 2014 and four years of analysis and extensive underwater surveys in the southern Indian Ocean have not revealed the main wreckage site.
Limited quantities of debris have been washed ashore in Africa but these have not given investigators sufficient insight into the cause of the loss.
Malaysia's new government had confirmed a few days ago that Ocean Infinity's search would conclude on 29 May.
"Part of our motivation for renewing the search was to try to provide some answers to those affected," says Ocean Infinity chief Oliver Plunkett.
"It is therefore with a heavy heart that we end our current search without having achieved that aim."
The search has covered over 112,000km² which, says the company, is "far in excess" of the initial 25,000km² planned.
While the operational search interval spanned only three months, it nevertheless managed to explore an area almost the size of that covered in the previous two-and-a-half years, it adds.
"There simply has not been a subsea search on this scale carried out as efficiently or as effectively ever before," claims Plunkett, highlighting the quality of the undersea survey data obtained.
"We sincerely hope that we will be able to again offer our services in the search for MH370 in future."
Source: Cirium Dashboard
