The head of the international search coordination center, a former Australian armed forces commander, Angus Houston, told reporters recently that the missing airliner may not be found at all. He cited the fate of the Australian naval cruiser Sydney, which disappeared in the Indian Ocean in 1941 and its wreckage was found only 67 years later.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, disappeared on March 7. Contact with the Boeing was lost two hours after it took off. Intensive search for the missing plane continued for six weeks, but not a trace was found.