Search teams from around the world are now looking for the missing Malaysian plane in a 123,000 square mile area.
The missing Boeing 777 also known as Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 still hasn't been found. However, various governments and teams are now looking at an area in the Indian Ocean. The problem is that the area is still too large and may prove difficult to cover sufficiently.
The area in question lies deep under the ocean. At its deepest point, search teams may have to deal with depths up to 19,000 feet. Moreover, this part of the sea floor is very dark murky. Search teams will also have to contend with thick layers of dead plankton, which may make the search efforts even more difficult. The Australian government has sent one of the largest search teams to help find the missing airplane.
"We are searching a vast area of ocean and we are working on quite limited information. Nevertheless the best brains in the world are applying themselves to this task," said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. "All of the technological mastery that we have is being applied and brought to bear here, so if this mystery is solvable, we will solve it, but I don't want to underestimate just how difficult it is."
Fortunately, the current search area is mostly flat. This flat section of the Indian Ocean is known as Broken Ridge, a large underwater plateau. Aside from being flat, the weather has also been cooperative, which may also make things somewhat easier for the search teams.
"We're working on the best available intelligence and on all available leads. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is an organisation which is extremely skilled in this," Abbott said. "We have one of the largest if not the largest search and rescue zones in the world."
One of the current priorities of the search teams is to narrow down the search area. Given the current size of the search area, the various governments and organizations conducting the search are spread pretty thinly. However, the Australian government is confident that the various search teams have a decent chance at zeroing in on the plane's location.
"For all sorts of reasons we've had plenty of experience trying to locate objects, trying to work out what's happened within our search and rescue zone," Abbott added. "We do it all the time. We're as good as anyone in the world at it and if any organisation is capable of coming up with an answer, it's the Australian Maritime Safety Authority."
