3-year long hunt for missing flight MH370 grinds to a halt with 239 people still missing

'I told my children to keep praying. As long as nothing is found, nothing is proven.'

Australian, Chinese and Malaysian officials released a joint statement on Tuesday, breaking hearts and dimming hope around the world.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The statement read: "Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modeling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft."

The aircraft in question is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which has been missing under mysterious circumstances for the past three years.

The flight, which was traveling from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Beijing, disappeared from radar above the Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014.

Since then, only five pieces believed to have been from the craft have been discovered, prompting authorities to assume the flight crashed into the sea after veering off course.

Search parties have combed 46,000 miles and the search has been ongoing for three years - but officials have finally been forced to call it off.

The joint statement explained: "The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness."

There were 239 people on board and the loss was not easily accepted, particularly from family members.

According to CNN, Voice370, a support group for family members of those on MH370, was upset at news of the search suspension so they released a statement of their own:

"Commercial planes cannot just be allowed to disappear without a trace. Stopping at the stage is nothing short of irresponsible, and betrays a shocking lack of faith in the data, tools and recommendations of an array of official experts assembled by the authorities themselves."

The group refuses to believe the pieces discovered by search parties actually belong to the missing craft.

Those pieces are:

1. A flaperon, a section of wing, discovered on Reunion Island in July 2015, which was confirmed as MH370 debris in September 2015
2. Horizontal stabilizer from a tail section, found in Mozambique in December 2015, which has yet to be confirmed to belong to Flight 370
3. A Stabilizer panel with "No Step" stencil, discovered in Mozambique February 2016, also unsubstantiated
4. Engine cowling bearing Rolls-Royce logo, found in March 2016 in Mossel Bay, South Africa, unconfirmed
5. A fragment of an interior door panel found in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius in March 2016, also unconfirmed

The pieces that remain unconfirmed cast plenty of doubt for Voice370, some of whom believe unknown terrorists took the plane and its passengers to a secret facility for unknown reasons.

Others, such as Lee Khim Fatt, the husband of flight attendant Foong Wai Yueng, believe the passengers may be alive somewhere, waiting for help to arrive.

Fatt told the Associated Press he was disappointed the search was suspended but refuses to believe his wife is gone.

"I told my children to keep praying. As long as nothing is found, nothing is proven."

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