Search for MH370 could take a year

The search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 could take up to 12 months, search coordinator retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston says.

Malaysian women write a message on the Wall of Hope

Malaysia's five-page report into Flight MH370 is mostly a recap of previously released information. (AAP)

The search for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 is likely to take eight to 12 months, authorities say.

Coordinator of the search, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, told reporters in Malaysia on Friday that he remained confident that the Boeing 777 would be found in the southern Indian Ocean.

He said the search would continue because they owed it to the families of the victims and the world to learn what happened to the ill-fated flight.

Mr Houston said last week that authorities would be "doing well" to complete the search in eight months.

He said a trilateral meeting would be held in Canberra on Monday between Australia, China and Malaysia to "formalise the way ahead" in the search.

"We are totally committed as three nations, I believe, to finding MH370 and I'm confident that with an effective search, we will eventually find the aircraft," Mr Houston said.

He said three ships from the Bangladesh Navy were searching in the Bay of Bengal, in response to claims by an Adelaide technology company, but they had not found any signs of the wreckage.

Mr Houston said one of the ships had an echo sounder that would ensure a thorough search of the area.

But he stressed he still believed the southern Indian Ocean was the right search zone.

GeoResonance has claimed its sensor technology found a plane in the Bay of Bengal, an area at the northern part of the original search zone for the commercial airliner.

Although the marine exploration company - which specialises in geophysical surveys to find oil, gas, groundwater and uranium - has not said the discovery is MH370, it says the possibility should be investigated.

The Bluefin-21 drone has completed its search of the 314-square-kilometre area around the detections made by the towed pinger locator and is now searching nearby areas in the southern Indian Ocean.

Mr Houston said he was hopeful the Bluefin-21 would find something by the end of May.

"The chances of finding it, I think the probability is lower than it was when we started the search," he said.

MH370 was carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished on March 8.


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Source: AAP


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