Malaysia's transport minister optimistic MH370 plane will be found by May
One year after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared mysteriously, Malaysia's transport minister Liow Tiong Lai (below) remains cautiously optimistic that the plane will be found by May.
But he also said that Australia, Malaysia and China, the three countries leading the effort, will come up with a new plan and re-examine the data if the current undersea search fails to turn up anything by the end of May.
PHOTO: AFP
Mr Liow said: "By the end of May, if we still can't find the plane, then we will have to go back to the drawing board.
"We rely on the expert group... to come up with the plan"
The search is currently focused on a remote region of the southern Indian Ocean.
The minister also added that his government's confidence is based on experts' information that the Malaysia Airlines jetliner ended its journey within a 60,000 square kilometre area off the coast of Western Australia.
He added that search teams have completed about 43 per cent of the search area so far - or 26,000 square kilometres.
Meanwhile, the joint search chief Sir Angus Houston also remains hopeful that the plane will be found.
“I think on the balance of probabilities at the moment, the chances of finding it are still good, and we should be patient and persist with the search,” Sir Angus said. “I’m still quietly optimistic that ... one day, hopefully very soon, we might wake up and hear that it’s been found.”
Source: The Guardian, BBC News, Malay Mail
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