China, Malaysia, Australia will double search zone of MH370

World Today

(FILES) This file photo taken from a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) P-3K2-Orion aircraft on April 13, 2014 shows co-pilot and squadron leader Brett McKenzie looking for objects during the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, off the coast of Perth in Western Australia. The search zone for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be doubled if nothing is found in the huge undersea area now being scanned for wreckage, Malaysia, Australia and China announced on April 16, 2015. A joint statement released after ministers from the three countries met in Kuala Lumpur said the Indian Ocean search zone would be expanded to 120,000 square kilometres (46,300 square miles) if the current area comes up empty. AFP PHOTO / FILES / Greg WOOD

The missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared in March 2014, while en route to Beijing. Officials from China, Malaysia and Australia say they will double the search area if the wreckage is not found in the current zone. 

“Even if the aircraft is not found in the current 60 thousand square kilometers, we have collectively decided to extend the search by an additional 60,000 square kilometers within the highest probability area. So the search is continuing based on expert analysis, and will cover a combined area of 120 thousand square kilometers, thereby covering 95 percent of the aircraft flight path,” said Liow Tiong Lai, Malaysian Transport Minister.

The search of the current 60,000 square kilometer patch of rough sea floor, which experts believe is the plane’s most likely resting place, will likely be finished next month. Officials say the extended search could take up to a year, given the adverse weather conditions.

The plane vanished from radar screens over one year ago, shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing with 239 people on board. Investigators believe it was flown thousands of miles off course before eventually crashing into the southern Indian Ocean off Australia’s west coast.

Story by CCTV News.