Indian Ocean search for missing Malaysian plane to shift south of initial seabed search zone

CANBERRA, Australia – An investigator says the next phase of the seabed search for the missing Malaysian plane will focus on an area of the Indian Ocean hundreds of kilometers (miles) south of the first suspected crash site.

Chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Martin Dolan, said Friday that an announcement will be made next week on where a 60,000 square kilometer (23,000 square mile) search of the ocean floor for wreckage using powerful sonar equipment will be focused.

Dolan says he expects the most likely crash site will be hundreds of kilometers (miles) south of where a remote-controlled underwater drone scoured the seabed where acoustic signals suspected to have come from the plane's black boxes were thought to have come from. The Malaysia Airlines flight vanished March 8.