The hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane will shift farther south of the most recent suspected crash site in a remote stretch of Indian Ocean, Australian officials said Thursday.
They also said they were confident that the plane was flying on autopilot when it crashed.
Transport Minister Warren Truss told reporters in Canberra on Thursday that the new search area is based on fresh analysis of existing satellite data from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The plane vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew aboard.
The shift was expected. The head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said last week it would move south of an area where a remote-controlled underwater drone spent weeks fruitlessly scouring 330 square miles of seabed.
Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, said 'certainly for its path across the Indian Ocean, we are confident that the aircraft was operating on autopilot until it ran out of fuel.'
Truss said officials have not attempted to fix a moment when the plane was put on autopilot.
Entities 0 Name: Australian Transport Safety Bureau Count: 2 1 Name: Indian Ocean Count: 2 2 Name: Malaysia Airlines Count: 2 3 Name: Beijing Count: 1 4 Name: Canberra Count: 1 5 Name: Warren Truss Count: 1 6 Name: Martin Dolan Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1rxYamw Title: New Search Area for Malaysia Jet Could Cover 23K Square Miles Description: Authorities plan to announce later today a new, expanded search area in the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared in March with 239 people aboard. The new search area could cover up to 23,000 square miles, which is 70 times larger than the area that has already been searched.
