MH370 wreckage: Australia examines area for debris search

Australia is working on drift modelling to expand the area in which wreckage from Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 may come ashore.

Initial analysis had suggested that the first debris could come ashore on Indonesia’s Western Sumatra after about 123 days.

Search co-ordinator Peter Foley said the research centre was receiving reports at least once a week of debris washed up on the Australian coastline, but none has so far been identified as coming from the aircraft.

The drift modelling supplements a surface and underwater search for the aircraft, which disappeared over the remote Indian Ocean on March 8th, with 239 people on board.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Martin Dolan on Tuesday dismissed suggestions there was disagreement among the groups that make up the international team - America's Boeing Co, France's Thales, US investigator the National Transportation Safety Board and the Australian Defense Science and Technology Organisation.

The teams initially agreed an area about 600km long by 90km wide, west of Perth, was the most likely location for debris to come ashore.

A new report released last month specified two high-priority areas further to the south.

“There is no disagreement, just the deliberate application of differing analysis models,” Mr Dolan said.

All groups agree that MH370's final resting place is near the "7th arc", a curve that stretches from about 1,000km off Exmouth, Western Australia, to a point about 2,000km southwest of Perth.

More than 6,900 sq km of sea floor has been searched so far.

Reuters