SYDNEY — The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 covering 60,000 square kilometres of southern Indian Ocean seabed could be completed by May, it was reported on Sunday.
Officials of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), which is overseeing the search, told the Perth Sunday Times newspaper the three ships involved in the massive underwater hunt had covered two-thirds of the priority zone of the search area.
It had originally been thought the search could take 12 months. The newspaper also reported JACC could not clarify what would happen if the plane wasn't found in the search area.
It has been just over nine months since Malaysian flight MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.
The search zone 1,200 kilometres south west of Perth has been deemed the most likely area where the plane went down based on satellite connections to the aircraft that show it changed course for unknown reasons, first to the west and then south.
The Australian Transport and Safety Bureau has released a computer animated video and sonar images of the Indian Ocean's 6-kilometre-deep seabed taken by the search ship GO Phoenix.
It shows endless kilometres of sandy hills and gullies, but still no trace of the missing plane.