Search for MH370 Will Likely End by July: Chief

But ATSB head says he's 'optimistic' they'll find the missing Malaysia Airlines plane by then
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 7, 2016 8:56 AM CST
Search for MH370 Will Likely End by July: Chief
Jacquita Gomes, wife of Patrick Gomes, the in-flight supervisor on the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, prepares balloons with names of those on board during a remembrance event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Sunday.   (AP Photo/Joshua Paul)

If the hunt for MH370 doesn't turn up anything over the next few months, the head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says the search of a 46,000-square-mile swath of the Indian Ocean will likely be called off by July, NBC News reports. Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan says the Malaysian, Chinese, and Australian governments, who are all participating in the search, "don't have the appetite" to go beyond the $100 million already spent looking for the Malaysia Airlines plane, which went missing two years ago Tuesday.

There have been signs of hope in the search, including wreckage that may be from the plane washing up on Mozambique and Reunion Island in recent days. And Dolan tells the Telegraph that he's still "optimistic" the plane will be found soon off the coast of Western Australia. "There are still some high-priority areas that we have not been able to cover yet," he says. "We remain very confident that we are searching in by far the highest probable area and that if the plane is there we will find it." (An adventurer found what might be a piece of wreckage off Mozambique.)

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