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Funds, advanced submarines sought for new phase of MH370 search

SYDNEY — Senior officials from Malaysia, Australia and China met yesterday in Canberra to hash out the details of the next steps in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Australia's Transport Minister Warren Truss (second from left), Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (left) and China's Transport Minister Yang Chuantang (second from right) attend a press conference for the nearly two-month-old hunt for the missing Malaysian jet with search coordinator Angus Houston (centre) in Canberra, Australia, May 5, 2014.  Photo: AP

Australia's Transport Minister Warren Truss (second from left), Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (left) and China's Transport Minister Yang Chuantang (second from right) attend a press conference for the nearly two-month-old hunt for the missing Malaysian jet with search coordinator Angus Houston (centre) in Canberra, Australia, May 5, 2014. Photo: AP

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SYDNEY — Senior officials from Malaysia, Australia and China met yesterday in Canberra to hash out the details of the next steps in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.

Mr Angus Houston, the head of the search operation, met Malaysian Defence and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and Chinese Transport Minister Yang Chuantang yesterday to map out the next steps of the underwater search, which will focus on a 60,000 sq km patch of seafloor in a remote area of the Indian Ocean off Western Australia.

With the air and surface search now halted after nearly two months of a multinational hunt found no trace of the plane, a new search phase costing around A$60 million (S$69.7 million) will begin after all data gathered are analysed and a contractor is found to lease the sophisticated equipment needed, officials said after the meeting.

Mr Truss said yesterday discussions are needed with Malaysia and China on sharing the expense and the meetings will begin tomorrow in Canberra, the new headquarters of the operations.

An international panel of experts will also re-examine all data gathered to ensure search crews are looking in the right place, he said.

The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8 with 239 people while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. More than two-thirds of the passengers were from China.

Experts have narrowed the search area where the plane is presumed to have crashed to a large arc of the Indian Ocean about 1,600km north-west of the western Australian city of Perth.

“We’ve got to this stage of the process where it’s very sensible to go back and have a look at all the data that have been gathered, all the analyses that have been done and make sure there are no flaws in it, the assumptions are right, the analyses are right and the deductions and conclusions are right,’’ Mr Houston told reporters in Canberra.

So far, each country has borne its own cost for the search, Mr Hishammuddin said yesterday.

Costs going forward would depend on the assets that are available with governments and those taken from elsewhere, he added. “We’ll be looking at increased involvement from the manufacturers and their host countries,” he said.

Yesterday, Mr Truss seemed to open the door to manufacturers, including Boeing, which produced the 777-200ER jet, and engine maker Rolls-Royce, to contribute financially.

“They also have a vested interest in what happened on MH370, so they can be confident about the quality of their product or take remedial action if there was some part of the aircraft that contributed to this accident,” he told reporters.

Boeing said it was providing technical expertise to the investigation. “Boeing provides experts who assist on-site as well as many more within the company who, because of their detailed knowledge of the airplane, its performance and behaviour, are called upon to contribute,” the company said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.

The officials are also contacting governments and private contractors to find out whether they have specialised equipment that can dive deeper than the Bluefin-21, an unmanned submarine that has spent weeks scouring the seafloor in an area where sounds consistent with a plane’s black box were detected early last month.

Adding to the pressure, the United States said over the weekend that it would contribute the Bluefin for only one more month. Mr Truss said it would likely be another two months before any new equipment is searching in the water.

In the meantime, the Bluefin will continue to be used, although the search is currently on hold, while the Royal Australian Navy vessel Ocean Shield — which has the sub on board — is taking on supplies at a base in Western Australia. AGENCIES

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