PUTRAJAYA, Jan 30 — The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) expressed confidence today that the current search area in the hunt for Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean is the right place.

DCA flight operations assistant director Captain Mior Nor Badrishah Mohamad also told a media briefing that searchers have covered so far one-third of the 60,000 sq km search area off Perth, Australia, and that they expect to complete the underwater search area by May.

“Based on the available data that we have, this is the place,” Mior said.

“Based on the satellite communication data, the Inmarsat data and the aircraft performance data,” he added at the technical briefing for the media here, referring to British satellite telecommunications firm Inmarsat.

Mior said if the missing Boeing 777 jet, which disappeared on March 8 last year with 239 people on board, could not be found in the identified area, the relevant governments and experts would need to revisit and decide the next course of action.

“I cannot tell you the timeframe,” said Mior.

When asked if it would take years to locate the plane, the DCA official said: “Very difficult to say that.”

He also said it was “very challenging” to find the jet in the vast Indian Ocean that has rough terrain on its seabed and a depth of between two and six kilometres, even as no trace of debris or bodies have yet to be found almost a year after the plane vanished en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

“If the weather is bad, waves can go up to 12 to 15m,” said Mior.

The search for Flight MH370 is led by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, while other working group members include the DCA, Boeing, Inmarsat, the US National Transportation Safety Board and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch, among others, Mior said.

Yesterday, DCA director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman officially declared the disappearance of the airplane an “accident” and its missing passengers and crew presumed dead.

Retired Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who led Australia’s response to MH370 and downed flight MH17 in Ukraine, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday that it was possible that the missing plane might never be found in the deep waters of the Indian Ocean.

Resource: The Malay Mail Online