澳大利亚搜寻失踪马航飞机

Australia's maritime authorities have begun the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight covering an area of some 600-thousand square kilometers off Australia's west coast.

Our correspondent Wang Xiao has the details.

Reporter: The Australian-led search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane began on Tuesday afternoon, and covers a massive stretch of ocean around 3-thousand kilometers southwest of the western Australian city of Perth.

John Young with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the search in the Indian Ocean with help from the United States and New Zealand, admits the search will be difficult and long.

"The sheer size of the search area poses a huge challenge - the search area is more than 600,000 square kilometers. AMSA holds great concerns for those on the flight but is working positively ... as part of international efforts."

Captain Stuart Bellingham with the Joint Operational Command says right now their focus is strictly on the surface of the ocean.

John Young says the search area they've developed is based on information made available to them from the United States National Transportation Safety Board.

"AMSA has defined a possible search area with information available to us from a range of sources both nationally and internationally."

At present, the search by the joint task force off Western Australia is being conducted by airplanes flying reconnaissance missions from the coast.

Australian authorities have also confirmed they're in contact with China, which they say has expressed a willingness to become involved in the search in the Southern Indian Ocean.

For CRI, I'm Wang Xiao in Australia.