Image copyright AP Image caption The search in the Indian Ocean began immediately after the disappearance of MH370 in March 2014 
 
 Experts leading the hunt for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have said the plane is unlikely to be found in the current search area, and recommended looking further north. 
 
 No trace of the plane has been recovered in the southern Indian Ocean, after more than two years of searching. 
 
 MH370 disappeared while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board in 2014. 
 
 With the search to end soon, Australian officials say it will not be extended. 
 
 Australia's Transport Minister Darren Chester said the search would be unlikely to go beyond the scheduled end of January or February 2017 as the report does not give a "specific location" for the aircraft. 
 
 The governments of Australia, Malaysia and China, who are funding the search, had previously agreed that "we will be suspending the search unless credible evidence is available" that identifies the location, he said. 
 
 The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), tasked to coordinate the search, convened a review with a multi-national team of aviation and science experts in November. 
 
 Its latest report, based on that meeting, said "there is a high degree of confidence that the previously identified underwater area searched to date does not contain the missing aircraft". 
 
 Search vessels have been looking in a 120,000 sq km (46,332 sq miles) part of the southern Indian Ocean. 
 
 Experts identified a new area of approximately 25,000 sq km to the north of the current search area that had the "highest probability" of containing the wreckage. 
 
 "The participants of the First Principles Review were in agreement on the need to search an additional area representing approximately 25,000 km²". 
 
 This was the last area the plane could possibly be located, given current evidence, the report said. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption The current search for the Malaysia Airlines plane is due to end in early 2017 
 
 Their conclusion was based on new flight simulations and analysis of satellite communications, as well as drift modelling patterns based on the timing and locations of the discovery of debris. 
 
 Some debris pieces confirmed to be from MH370 have been found along the African coast and islands in the Indian Ocean by private citizens in recent months. 
 
 The experts also said the plane was on an "unstable flight path" and that its wing flaps were in a retracted position, in line with earlier findings by the ATSB that the plane made a "rapid and uncontrolled descent". 
 
 The ATSB said it had presented the recommendation to the Malaysian, Chinese and Australian governments. 
 
 Only one vessel is left searching for the plane in the current search area. ||||| Australia’s Transport Safety Bureau reveals it is ‘confident’ aircraft not in underwater zone that has been explored so far 
 
 The Australian authorities leading the search for MH370 have a “high degree of confidence” that the plane’s wreck is not to be found in the expanse of Indian ocean they have spent more than two years searching. 
 
 MH370: data suggests plane was out of control as it plummeted into ocean Read more 
 
 The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) on Tuesday released the findings from its MH370 First Principles Review summit of crash investigators, aviation experts and government representatives, held in Canberra over three days from 4 November. 
 
 The Australian-led search effort of 120,000 sq km of the southern Indian ocean, informed by satellite data, has cost $145m (£117m) and is due to end in January. Fewer than 10,000 sq km remain to be searched, though progress has been slowed by bad weather. 
 
 But experts meeting in Canberra to reassess existing evidence and analysis say they are now confident the wreck of the plane is not there. 
 
 “There is a high degree of confidence that the previously identified underwater area searched to date does not contain the missing aircraft.” 
 
 New analysis of the satellite data, combined with drift analysis, has identified the most likely point that MH370 hit the water as being close to the so-called “seventh arc”, north of the current search zone. 
 
 In April, the ATSB commissioned the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to perform a detailed study of the drift of recovered debris. Its findings were also released on Tuesday, and served to narrow down the possible point of impact of the plane. 
 
 Why is Australia leading the search for MH370? Australia is leading the underwater search effort because the flight terminated in the southern Indian ocean: Australia's search and rescue region. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority assumed responsibility for the surface search in the days following the plane's disappearance. Australia was then invited to be an accredited representative in the accident investigation led by Malaysia. In May 2014, Malaysia, Australia and China agreed to an underwater search led by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the national investigator based in Canberra. In the event the aircraft is found, the three countries have agreed plans to recover the wreck. 
 
 
 
 The CSIRO’s findings were reinforced by the timing and location of where confirmed debris of the plane has been found: in the western Indian Ocean and on the east coast of Africa. 
 
 Experts have identified a new area of approximately 25,000 sq km – between latitudes 33 degrees south and 36 degrees south – as “the area with the highest probability of containing the wreckage of the aircraft”, given the 110,000 sq km that have been eliminated. 
 
 “The experts concluded that, if this area were to be searched, prospective areas for locating the aircraft wreckage, based on all the analysis to date, would be exhausted.” 
 
 Whether the new prospective search will be carried out is dependent on funding from Australia, Malaysia and China, the three governments involved in the search effort. 
 
 A spokesman for the ATSB told Guardian Australia that the attendees of the first principles review summit “were not parties empowered to make decisions about any future search efforts”. The report had been provided to the three governments “for their consideration”. 
 
 “If we are unable to locate the aircraft in the current search area, this new area represents the next most likely area to contain the aircraft.”. 
 
 
 
 How much it would cost to search the new 25,000 sq km area had not been determined, he said. 
 
 In July, the three transport ministers had agreed that, in the absence of credible new evidence, the search for MH370 would be suspended indefinitely upon the completion of the effort currently underway. 
 
 
 
 The Australian transport minister, Darren Chester, seemed to downplay the likelihood of the search being extended in a statement which reiterated the resolution of the tripartite meeting in July and said the report did “not give a specific location of the missing aircraft”. 
 
 Malaysia's MH370 search under the spotlight after investigation delays Read more 
 
 “We are very close to completing the 120,000 sq km underwater search area, and we remain hopeful that we will locate the aircraft,” he said. 
 
 He repeated the decision made in July that the search would be suspended “unless credible evidence is available that identifies the specific location of the aircraft”. 
 
 The Malaysian transport minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, said it remained to be seen how the ATSB report could be used to help identify the aircraft’s specific location. 
 
 “I wish to reiterate that the aspiration to locate MH370 has not been abandoned and every decision made has and will always be in the spirit of cooperation among the three nations.” 
 
 The third anniversary of the plane’s disappearance from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing will be on 8 March 2017. The ATSB began searching the 120,000 sq km area in October 2014. ||||| Media release Title MH370 First Principles Review and CSIRO reports 
 
 Today the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) released its report MH370 – First Principles Review and CSIRO’s supporting report The search for MH370 and ocean surface drift. 
 
 The First Principles Review report summarises the outcomes of a meeting conducted in November and attended by Australian and international experts in data processing, satellite communications, accident investigation, aircraft performance, flight operations, sonar data, acoustic data and oceanography. 
 
 The purpose of the First Principles Review was to reassess and validate existing evidence and to consider any new analysis that may assist in identifying the location of MH370. The CSIRO report, which should be read in conjunction with the ATSB report, was commissioned by the ATSB earlier in 2016 and was considered by the experts attending the First Principles Review. 
 
 The experts confirmed their agreement that the analysis of the last two SATCOM transmissions, the likely housed position of the main flaps at impact, and results from the recent flight simulations indicate with high probability that the aircraft lies within 25 NM of the 7th arc that had been derived from analysis of the last satellite communications with the aircraft. 
 
 Given the high confidence in the search undertaken to date, the experts agreed that the previously defined indicative underwater area is unlikely to contain the missing aircraft between latitudes 36°S and 39.3°S along the 7th arc. 
 
 The experts also agreed that CSIRO’s debris drift modelling results present strong evidence that the aircraft is most likely to be located to the north of the current indicative underwater search area. When considered together with updated flight path modelling, the experts concluded that an unsearched area between latitudes 33°S and 36°S along the 7th arc of approximately 25,000 km², has the highest probability of containing the wreckage of the aircraft. 
 
 MH370 disappeared on 8 March 2014 with 239 people on board. Australia, Malaysia and People's Republic of China have been working together to find the aircraft since that time. 
 
 Given the international protocols for aircraft recovery scenarios such as this, Malaysia will continue to take the central role in the determination of any future course of action in the search for MH370. 
 
 This report has been provided to the three principal Governments involved in the search effort for their consideration. 
 
 Read reports: MH370 – First Principles Review and The search for MH370 and ocean surface drift. ||||| Story highlights New search area recommended after experts agree MH370 not in current zone 
 
 Search was originally intended to finish in January or February 2017 
 
 (CNN) Teams searching for missing aircraft Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have very likely been looking in the wrong place, a new Australian government report confirmed. 
 
 "Given the high confidence in the search undertaken to date, the experts agreed that the previously defined (search) area is unlikely to contain the missing aircraft," a spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said in a statement. 
 
 The report recommended that, based on new analysis, a new area to the northeast of the current search area should be searched, approximately 25,000 square kilometers. 
 
 However, Australian Infrastructure and Transport Minister Darren Chester said the search would not be extended without new evidence. 
 
 "The information in the ATSB report ... does not give a specific location of the missing aircraft," he said. "We are very close to completing the 120,000 square kilometer underwater search area, and we remain hopeful that we will locate the aircraft."
– The only boat left searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 isn't likely to find it, experts say. A new report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says "there is a high degree of confidence" that the plane that disappeared from radar on March 8, 2014, isn't in the Pennsylvania-sized search area that's been combed over two years, reports the BBC. Instead, experts believe MH370 lies to the north, within a 10,000-square-mile patch of the Indian Ocean that's about 20% of the size of the current search area, based on new flight simulations, an analysis of satellite communications, and debris drift patterns. The report adds there's only a 5% chance the plane was missed over the 42,500 square miles searched so far, reports CNN. Experts and investigators are "in agreement in the need to search an additional area" and "concluded that, if this area were to be searched, prospective areas for locating the aircraft wreckage, based on all the analysis to date, would be exhausted," the report states, per the Guardian. However, the governments of Australia, Malaysia, and China previously agreed to suspend the $145 million search effort in the new year "unless credible evidence is available that identifies the specific location of the aircraft." Australia's transport minister notes it does "not give a specific location of the missing aircraft." The report has been presented to the governments "for their consideration," an ATSB rep says.