In a joint statement, Australia, China and Malaysia announced on Thursday that they would extend the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 beyond 'priority area' in the southern Indian Ocean, if the wreckage is not found in the current search area.
In the tripartite meeting held on Thursday, Malaysia and search partners China and Australia met to discuss on the future course of action after they failed to keep up the May deadline to find the missing plane, a year later.
The official agreed that for the extended search for MH370 wreckage, which disappeared last year - believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean off Australia's west coast - could take up to a year.
The search for the wreckage seems to have become a bit more complicated as of now.
A Reuters report citing Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss stated that the search area was in a very "inhospitable country", however, Truss remained "optimistic" of finding the plane and getting answers in the next few months.
Search teams scouring the seabed using sophisticated sonar equipment are looking in the 60,000sqkm area far west of the Australian city of Perth for the missing Malaysian plane. As of now 60% area has been searched and about 40% of this remains to be searched.
If the teams failed to find anything now, the search will then be extended by another 60,000sqkm to "cover the entire highest probability area identified by expert analysis," a joint statement from the ministers said.
MH370 went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March 2014 and with it the 239 people on board the doomed plane. Earlier in January, the Malaysian government declared MH370 tragedy as an air accident under international aviation regulations.
