After an underwater search by the Bluefin-21 submersible failed to find any sign of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in a 6.2 square-mile area of the ocean floor, on Monday Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced, “We are going to enter a new phase of search focusing under the sea.” Commercial contractors using different types of technology will begin scouring a much larger area of the seabed, covering and area of about 435 miles by 50 miles. “That is obviously going to take quite a few months,” Abbott said (though a U.S. official suggested it’s likely to take years). Meanwhile, the aerial search will be suspended. “It is highly unlikely at this stage that we will find any aircraft debris on the ocean surface,” Abbott said. “By this stage, 52 days into the search, most material would have become waterlogged and sunk.”
