Analysis affirms MH370 search area

At a press conference in Canberra, Truss said he remained “hopeful, indeed optimistic, that we will still locate the aircraft” and that the report gave “real encouragement”. It’s not clear whether search teams will switch focus within the zone or continue as previously planned.

Based on satellite analysis of the jet’s likely trajectory after it diverted from its flight path, ships have been scouring the seabed off Australia’s west coast, so far covering 75,000 square kilometres (29,000 square miles) of a 120,000 square kilometre target zone without result. “There’s around 44,000 sq km yet to be searched in this new priority area”.

Part of an aircraft wing, known as a flaperon, was found on Reunion Island in July, roughly 4,000km from the search zone.

The report will be released today. AirAsia said it had made safety changes since the crash to address these problems.

Experts involved in past deep-water searches have said the hunt could easily miss the plane because Dutch company Fugro NV was using inappropriate technology and inexperienced personnel for the highly specialized task.

Scientists and mathematicians have readjusted their assumptions about the where the plane went down a number of times after reanalyzing communications from the plane with an Inmarsat PLC satellite, and reassessing the performance characteristics of the Boeing aircraft with the help of the manufacturer. More than $140 million have been poured into the search efforts.

The new analysis by an agency of Australia’s Defence Department said “the highest probability” was that the final resting place for the plane was within the current search area, the government said.

Now Truss has said that an area at the southern tip of that search area might be the right area.

Truss added that China is providing a ship that will join the search in January, bringing the total to four.

The search in the Indian Ocean has been ongoing since previous year, involving at least 20 countries and at a cost of around $180 million.

Nearly two years after Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines MH370 vanished after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister has said that it may take another seven months to find the missing plane.