Malaysia Airlines plane’s disappearance mystery may never be solved

The reasons for the Malaysia Airlines plane’s disappearance may never be known, police chief Khalid Abu Bakar has warned as PM Najib Razak heads to Australia for talks on the search.

Malaysia’s police chief said that their investigation could “go on and on”.

Ten planes and nine ships will search the southern Indian Ocean on Tuesday.

Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 as it was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It was carrying 239 people.

Razak Najib will arrive in Perth, western Australia, on Wednesday evening. He will visit the new Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), where the southern Indian Ocean search is being led.

He will meet Australian PM Tony Abbott, and retired air chief marshal Angus Houston, who is leading the JACC.

Meanwhile, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said the criminal investigation could “go on and on and on. We have to clear every little thing”.

“At the end of the investigations, we may not even know the real cause. We may not even know the reason for this incident,” he said.

He added that police had “cleared” all the passengers of the four key areas being investigated: hijacking, sabotage, and psychological and personal problems, Malaysia’s Bernama news agency reported.

Khalid Abu Bakar added that more than 170 interviews had been conducted with family members of the pilots and crew members, and that even cargo and food served on the plane were being investigated in case of sabotage.

Wednesday’s search area is around 85,300 sq miles, but cloudy conditions, “sea fog and isolated thunderstorms” will reduce visibility for search planes, JACC said in a statement.

The private jet of film director Peter Jackson has also joined the search.

On Tuesday, ACM Houston said it was the most challenging operation he had ever seen, and warned that search efforts “could drag on for a long time”.

Several floating objects have been found in recent days, but none is believed to belong to the missing plane.