Fresh evidence reiterates MH370’s likely location

Canberra, April 21 (IANS) Fresh evidence confirms that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is most likely located to the north of of the actual search zone, Australian scientists said on Friday.

The evidence was featured in a report prepared for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) scientists

The new area is twice the size of greater Sydney, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation news reported.

This latest research confirms their earlier drift analysis made in a report released in November 2016.

In their new report, the CSIRO team confirmed their new findings correspond to their previous predictions for the plane's location.

"The only thing that our recent work changes is our confidence in the accuracy of the estimated location, which is within the new search area identified ... near 35 degrees south," the scientists said.

It is a region known as the Seventh Arc, which was searched incompletely during 2014-15 before efforts were redirected further south.

A total of 239 people were on board the flight travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, when it disappeared from aviation radars.

The search for the Boeing 777 was suspended in January, reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation news.

Ministers from Malaysia, Australia and China agreed that there needed to be "credible new evidence" if the operation was to continue.

About 120,000 sq.km of the ocean bed have been searched to no avail, despite the more than $180 million cost of the operation.

Since the CSIRO's November report, the scientists conducted further detailed analysis based on the first tangible evidence of the crash - a part of the wing known as a flaperon - which washed up at La Reunion Island in 2015.