"We think that the search of all 120,000 square kilometers [over 46,000 square miles], the search area, is likely to take until about June of the next year," Truss said at a press conference.
The deputy prime minister said that Australian ships had yet to examine the remaining 44,000 square kilometers of the search area, and that the Australian authorities "are optimistic and hopeful that the search will result in locating the aircraft."
Truss was hoping that it would be possible to recover data from the airliner’s black box if it could be found.
The Australian-led international search-and-rescue operation has already covered some 76,000 square kilometers of the search area – more than 60 percent of the entire target.
In August, a fragment of the aircraft wing was found on the French Island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean, which helped to narrow the search area.
