With the decision to halt search operation late last month and to begin again in October, it seems that the previous announcement of a December deadline no longer sticks because the follow-up search operation is likely to extend beyond the end of this year.
The massive search for the wreckage of Flight MH370 was supposed to end in July but without positive developments, the quest went on.
As of the end of August, 110,000 square kilometers of the total 120,000 square kilometers have already been covered by the search. According to a spokesperson from the ATSB which is coordinating the search involving the governments of Australia, Malaysia, and China, they will just finish the target area and conclude the search if nothing turns up.
However, the ATSB official did say that they will still probe some targets that were previously missed out by the search.
The absence of new leads shall certainly compel the Australian, Malaysian, and Chinese authorities to end its $130 million search operation involving high-tech scanning at designated swaths of the sea floor in the Indian Ocean.
Latest reports have it that when the search operation resumes next month, the Chinese-owned search trawler Dong Hai Jiu 101, which can be controlled remotely, shall be joining the Maryland-based Phoenix International in scouring the area.