Missing plane search postponed

The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which has been missing for two weeks, is being postponed Tuesday because of inclement weather over the Indian Ocean, The Associated Press reports.

The multi-national search for the missing airplane was put on hold following an announcement by the Malaysian Prime Minister that his nation was confident that the Malaysia Air flight crashed into the Indian Ocean.

The announcement ended any faint hope that relatives of the passengers who were on board the flight had survived the plane’s mysterious disappearance.

{mosads}The search for the vanished jetliner was postponed Tuesday because investigators were facing “gale force winds,” according to the report.

The missing plane was a Boeing 777 that was carrying 239 passengers at the time of its disappearance.

The flight was last contacted by air traffic controllers about an hour into its trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

Investigators initially believed the plane had crashed into the Gulf of Thailand, where it was located when its pilots last had radio contact with air traffic controllers.

Officials later came to believe the plane’s radar equipment was intentionally turned off and the jet flew several hours after backtracking from its intended flight path.

Officials from France, Australian and China all said over the weekend that they have identified potential debris from the missing plane in the Indian Ocean, which is more than 1,000 miles from where the flight was last detected by air traffic controllers.