Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a trilateral meeting next week to decide on the next step in the costly and frustrating hunt for the missing Malaysian jet, even as officials said it could take up to a year to find the final resting place of the plane.
“That’s a very important meeting because it will formalise the way ahead to ensure that this search continues with urgency and doesn’t stop at any stage,” Australian search coordinator Air Chief Marshal (retd) Angus Houston said of the meeting in Canberra.
The proposed meeting follows a decision this week to scale back the costly search operation, including ending the aerial search for surface wreckage, in the southern Indian Ocean that has so far turned up no wreckage.
Houston noted that the search will take at least 8-12 months but said they were totally committed to find the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that went missing on March 8.
“We need to continue to search, we owe it to the families,” Houston, who is currently visiting Malaysia, told reporters here.
Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said he would attend the meeting. Hishammuddin said he was confident that the aircraft will be found.