Australians say missing Malaysian plane search in right area

Australian authorities have said new analysis confirms they have probably been searching in the right place for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane which vanished with 239 people aboard in 2014.

In this March 22, 2014 file photo, flight officer Rayan Gharazeddine on board a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, searches for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in southern Indian Ocean, Australia. Image by AP Photo/Rob Griffith

Searchers have been combing a 46,000-square-mile part of the Indian Ocean since last year, but have yet to turn up any trace of Flight 370. A wing flap from the Boeing 777 was found in July washed up on remote Reunion Island.

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. Deputy prime minister Warren Truss said the new analysis pointed to the aircraft most likely coming to rest in the southern part of the current search area, so the operation would focus on that location and slightly widen the boundaries of the area there.

In this July 29, 2015 file photo, French police officers carry a piece of debris from a plane in Saint-Andre, Reunion Island. The wing was later found to be from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that went missing March 8, 2014, with 239 people aboard while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Image by AP Photo/Lucas Marie/File

The Boeing disappeared on March 8 2014, during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, baffling authorities. The current seabed search more than 1,100 miles south west of Australia began in October last year. Ships using side-scan sonar and an underwater drone fitted with a video camera have so far scoured more than 27,000 square miles of rugged terrain.

The search area is based on analysis of scant satellite information that tracked the final hours of Flight 370.

(Press Association)