MH370:UK scientist pessimistic over search mission

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 requires a commitment of unprecedented magnitude and could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, said a UK-based marine scientist on Saturday.

One of the world’s most experienced and successful deep-sea shipwreck hunters, David Mearns said that he is not optimistic that the search teams will be able to locate the wreckage of flight MH370 on the seabed in the southern Indian Ocean given the clues they currently have.

During an interview with the China Central Television, CCTV, he said that even if some wreckage is retrieved, it will be almost impossible to use it to locate the missing plane as it will have been drifting on the sea for more than 20 days.

Mearns said that looking at the enormous search area that the search team is pursuing, it would be impossible to retrieve the black box with the non-advanced techniques and equipment used currently by the search team.

The marine scientist said that the only way to locate the black box is to find and sift through the wreckage.

He added that the cost of finding the plane could be well beyond the USD 45 million spent on locating the Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.