CRI听力:Search for MH370 to Take up to a Year

Reporter:
The upcoming search for the plane will focus on a 60,000 square kilometer patch of sea floor some 16-hundred kilometers west of Perth, Australia.

A Chinese naval vessel and a vessel provided by Dutch engineering firm Fugro will conduct a detailed underwater mapping of the search area.

The two vessels have been mapping areas of the ocean floor since May.

Next month, three vessels equipped with sophisticated sonar equipment will start an underwater search.

Australian authorities will lead the underwater search at Malaysia's request.

Chinese Vice-Minister of Transport He Jianzhong says the ministers have all agreed that they will not give up the search.

"We are sure that through the joint efforts of all three parties, we will maintain the search effort in finding MH370. The search will not be interrupted, will not be stopped, we will not give up."

Flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March.

154 passengers were Chinese nationals.

So far, no trace of the plane has been found despite an extensive search in the southern Indian Ocean.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss says the search has been refined after recent satellite data showed the aircraft might have turned south earlier than originally thought.

But Truss says the overall search area remains unchanged.

"The search area remains the same but some of the areas, some of the information we now, have suggests to us that areas a little further to the south - within the search area, but a little further to the south - may be of particular interest and priority in the search area. This information comes from further refinement of the satellite data. It remains on the seventh arc. That is there is a very, very strong view that the aircraft will be resting on this seventh arc."

The crucial question of why the aircraft flew off course remains unanswered.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai says to conclude the investigation, it is necessary to find the plane's black boxes.

"We have been briefed by the investigators, investigating committees. They actually have two stages, stage one and stage two. They have completed majority of the investigation part, but most important thing, the investigation cannot continue without the search result. We need to find the plane, we need to find the black box in the plane so that we can have a conclusion in the investigation."

During the meeting, Malaysia also signed a memorandum of understanding with Australia on cooperation in the search.

Under the agreement, the two countries will split the cost of the new search phase, estimated at up to over 48 million US dollars.

The effort to find the missing MH370 has already become the biggest search operation in history.

The ministers say they remain cautiously optimistic that the missing aircraft will be found.

For CRI, I'm Shen Ting.