Experts attempt to define new MH370 search zone but requires new funding to continue
Officials are planning the next phase of the deep-sea sonar search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in case the current two-year search turns up nothing
Experts hunting for the missing Malaysian airliner are attempting to define a new search area by studying where in the Indian Ocean the first piece of wreckage recovered from the lost Boeing 777 – a wing flap – most likely drifted from after the disaster that claimed 239 lives, the new leader of the search said.
Officials are planning the next phase of the deep-sea sonar search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in case the current two-year search of 120,000 sq km turns up nothing, Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Greg Hood said.
However, a new search would require a new funding commitment, with Malaysia, Australia and China agreeing in July that the US$160 million search will be suspended once the current vast expanse southwest of Australia is exhausted unless new evidence emerges that would pinpoint a specific location.
“If it is not in the area which we defined, it’s going to be somewhere else in the near vicinity,” Hood said in an interview this week.
Further analysis of the wing fragment known as a flaperon found on Reunion Island off the African coast in July last year –15 months after the plane went missing – will hopefully help narrow a possible next search area outside the current boundary.
