Hunt for MH370 shifts further south

CANBERRA: New information unearthed by Australian authorities indicate that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 "may have turned south earlier" than initially thought.
The new detail came after "further refinement" of satellite data and as investigators attempted to map the position of the jet during a failed attempt to contact it earlier in its flight path, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said.
As such. the hunt for the missing plane will now focus on the southern part of the existing search zone, he announced today.
"The search area remains the same, but some of the information that we now have suggests to us that areas a little further to the south – within the search area, but a little further to the south – are of particular interest and priority in the search area," he said.
His comments came as Australia and Malaysia signed a memorandum of understanding in Canberra over the next phase of the hunt for the plane, which disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board.
MH370 is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean far off the west coast of Australia, but a massive air and sea search has so far failed to find any wreckage while an underwater probe gave no answers.
Experts have now used technical data to finalise the most likely resting place of the plane deep on the ocean seabed and are preparing for a more intense underwater search focusing on an area of ocean measuring 60,000 square kilometres, beginning next month.
Truss said investigators still believed the aircraft is resting somewhere on the search zone's seventh arc, where it emitted a final satellite "handshake".
"There is a very, very strong view that this aircraft will be resting on the seventh arc," Truss said.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said Malaysia and Australia have today agreed to share the cost of the next phase of the search for MH370.
"Malaysia will provide the necessary financial contribution towards the search effort and match Australia's commitment," he said after meeting Truss and Lai and China's Deputy Transport Minister He Jianzhong in Canberra to discuss the progress in the search for the plane.
Australia has contracted Dutch survey company Fugro Survey Pty Ltd to conduct a search of the sea floor. The search is expected to last up to 12 months at an estimated cost of A$60 million (RM177 million).