MH370 search area could be doubled

The search area for flight MH370 will be doubled in size to encompass a vast Indian Ocean corridor if wreckage remains elusive, Malaysian, Australian and Chinese ministers said Thursday.

Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the ministers said the deep-sea zone now being scanned for signs of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines jet would be expanded to 120,000 square kilometers if the current area comes up empty.

"If the aircraft is not found within the current 60,000 square kilometer search area, we have collectively decided to extend the search by an additional 60,000 square kilometers within the highest-probability area," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said.

He spoke at a press briefing following a meeting with Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and China's Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 239 passengers and crew aboard veered off route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, creating one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries and sparking a massive international effort to find it.

Most MH370 passengers were Chinese.

About 60 percent of the initial suspected crash area has already been searched in the Australian-led, high-tech effort to scan the seafloor.

Australian authorities said earlier that the current search was expected to be completed in May, raising fears among next-of-kin that the expensive and challenging operation would end after that.

The current zone, a sweeping arc about 1,600 kilometers off Australia's west coast was determined via expert analysis of signals from MH370 detected by a satellite.

Authorities admit the method is not precise but say they have nothing else to go on.

The expanded area would center on the current zone and follow its contours, but be wider and longer.

"We will extend north, south, east and west — it's an expanded area, it's within the high-priority areas," Liow said.

In a joint statement, the ministers said an expanded search could take another year due to the difficulties faced by the operation in the remote and storm-tossed seas.

Truss said it would take "at least the rest of this year," noting that the additional area would be as forbidding as the current one.

"As the new search area surrounds the old one, you can assume the seabed is broadly similar," he said.

Rough weather, the pitch-black extreme depths of up to 4,000 meters, and the rugged nature of the previously unmapped seafloor have made for a slow, frustrating search.

Four different search vessels are towing 10-kilometer cables fitted with sophisticated sonar systems that scan the seabed.

Truss said Australia and Malaysia remained "committed to making sure we can do this job properly."

"We have the best equipment in the world and we are satisfied the search is being conducted in a very professional way," he added.

Yang said China would also marshal resources "including vessels or other physical assets" if the search is broadened.

The meeting also discussed possible next steps if wreckage is found so that a recovery operation can quickly swing into action.

Shortly before veering off its route, MH370's communications and tracking systems appear to have been "deliberately" shut down, Malaysia has said. The cause of the diversion remains unknown.