China Pledges $14.5 Million For Search Of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged an additional $14.5 million to fund the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared more than a year ago with 239 people aboard.

Li made the announcement Saturday during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Malaysia, where Asia-Pacific leaders are holding a regional summit.

The MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. French investigators have identified a washed-up piece of airplane debris found in July on a remote island in the Indian Ocean as part of the Boeing 777.

A multinational search has so far covered millions of square kilometers (miles) in the southern Indian Ocean at a cost of more than $120 million.

Most of the passengers were Chinese, and the Chinese government has vowed to spare no effort to locate and recover the plane.