MH370 wreckage to be found in Australia’s search zone

Canberra: Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Friday said that the wreckage from missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 will be found in Australia's search zone in the southern Indian Ocean.

Bishop said this week's news of debris washing up on Reunion Island off the east coast of Africa pointed to the wreckage being somewhere within the 120,000 square kilometer search area off the west coast of Australia, Xinhua reported.

"We at least seem to have some evidence that flight MH370 will be found, particularly in the search area that (Australia) has been focusing on," she said.

Bishop said Australia has an important role in finding the jet, not only to provide closure to the families of those missing, but also to reinstate faith in civil aviation to those who travel frequently.

"We believe it is important for international civil aviation, generally, for us to determine what happened to this flight, as well as provide the opportunity for families of those on-board to have some closure," she said.

MH370 went missing on March 8 last year with 239 people on-board, most of them Chinese nationals.

Bishop said Australia had pledged another $40 million US to the search, but calculating who was contributing what to the hunt was not the pertinent issue.

"This is one of the great aviation mysteries of our time, and for the purpose of safety, security, faith, and trust in the civil aviation system, we must do what we can to find MH370," she told.

(IANS)