For the briefest of moments last week, it looked like the search for MH370 might be over. Sonar images from ocean depths of nearly 13,000 feet revealed "multiple small bright reflections in a relatively small area of otherwise featureless seabed," said Peter Foley, director of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. 
 
 Advertisement - Continue Reading Below 
 
 Evidence of any kind of manmade objects delivered a much-needed lift to the team investigating the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is nearing the end of a nearly year-long, and thus far futile, underwater quest for the remains of the Boeing 777 and the 239 people aboard. A robot trailing the Dutch ship Fugro Equator was quickly sent back down with a camera. The verdict: This was indeed wreckage, but of a ship—not the plane that vanished without a trace more than 14 months ago. 
 
 This was just the latest of many setbacks for ATSB, which maintains that it is more determined than ever to find the missing plane, despite the daunting costs and logistical difficulties. But with so few facts to go on, is MH370 going to turn into modern aviation's version of a cold case? 
 
 "Until we find the aircraft, everyone can say, 'Well, you must be looking in the wrong place.'" 
 
 Advertisement - Continue Reading Below 
 
 "It's been a challenge for months and it's going to continue to be a challenge," said John Goglia, former National Transportation Safety Board member and a safety consultant. But he added that he believes the search can never be officially shut down, even if nothing turns up. 
 
 The search slogs on 
 
 Investigators have a plan for the short term: At the end of May, when the search of the initial 23,000-square-mile zone concludes, they will reboot the operation and embark on phase 2 to cover 46,000 square miles. That could take another year to complete because winter is about to set in in the Southern Hemisphere, meaning searchers for MH370 are going to be out there for a long time to come even if nothing turns up. 
 
 The shipwreck discovered by MH370 searchers ATSB 
 
 Advertisement - Continue Reading Below 
 
 Advertisement - Continue Reading Below 
 
 Oddly, the shipwreck discovery—despite the fact that it was a false alarm—is giving the operation a boost, in part because it affirms how well the technology is working. The pictures were so clear that maritime experts have already determined the vessel dates from the 19th century. However, the vital robot that delivered the data this time is about to be sidelined because of the changing seasons. Team leaders said they can't risk damaging the drone until conditions improve, and without it, the search is clearly going to slow down. 
 
 As the search slogs onward, two questions continue to baffle observers and will drive the future of the investigation. One, why hasn't any floating debris turned up? And two, are they looking in the right place. 
 
 Debris 
 
 First, the debris: Many experts have noted that it's virtually unprecedented in modern aviation to have found not a single piece of a missing plane. Even when jets have crashed in remote sections of the ocean, such as Air France 447 in 2009, fragments were spotted within days. 
 
 It's possible something did surface soon after the March 8, 2014 disappearance of MH370, but no one noticed because they weren't looking in the right place. In that case the trash would have traveled far from the crash scene by the time investigators homed in on the current search zone. 
 
 It's virtually unprecedented in modern aviation to have found not a single piece 
 
 Advertisement - Continue Reading Below 
 
 Late last year the Australian team had predicted that it could take a year or more for wreckage to wash up on land, based in part on a drift model that they developed with experts that taps knowledge of ocean currents, winds and weather conditions. The best guess for where the flotsam might surface is the western coast of Sumatra, Australian authorities said at the time. 
 
 But Goglia scoffed at the idea that a drift model would accurately predict where debris would end up. In the southern Indian Ocean, "you have these hundreds of tracks just swirling around like a giant whirlpool,' he said. "Just because it's drifting doesn't mean it is drifting toward land." And it's possible that some of MH370 could have mingled with a larger heap of floating garbage somewhere in the sea. 
 
 Search zone 
 
 Advertisement - Continue Reading Below 
 
 Advertisement - Continue Reading Below 
 
 The total absence of hard evidence is also leading some to question whether search zone itself is off base. The search team has continued to reaffirm its confidence in the calculations—based on the Inmarsat satellite data and the pings from the errant plane as it headed south—that led investigators to focus on the so-called seventh arc, refining the hunt to an area about 1,000 miles west of Perth, Australia. 
 
 But team members also acknowledged that there's room for error. Already, the boundaries of the search area have been tweaked; last fall it was moved 500 miles further south based on adjusted calculations. 
 
 "This is so important, not to mention a matter of national pride." 
 
 Cold case? 
 
 What if the search comes up empty after another year or two—will they just give up? That's highly unlikely, given the high profile of the case and importance of solving aviation's biggest mystery, according to several sources close the matter. 
 
 Advertisement - Continue Reading Below 
 
 While the costs of the probe are expected to exceed $100 million, it is virtually unprecedented for a search of this magnitude to be called off, at least in the modern jet age, according to a source at the NTSB who preferred to remain anonymous. 
 
 "This is so important, not to mention a matter of national pride," he said of the countries involved, chiefly Malaysia, China, and Australia. "It's a big ocean, but I think they will find some wreckage at some point." 
 
 Plus, everybody's got their pet hypothesis (or conspiracy theory) about the ultimate fate and location of the plane. There are crowd-funding efforts to fund a search in areas beyond where official investigators are looking, and websites full of rampant speculation and alternate theories. In short, there will never not be somewhere to look. 
 
 "Until we find the aircraft, everyone can say, 'Well you must be looking in the wrong place because you haven't found it,'" Martin Dolan, chairman of the ATSB, told Australian news media recently. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 Investigators hunting for missing Flight MH370 have widened their ocean floor search to a larger zone and don’t know where else to focus if the jet can’t be found there, authorities announced Wednesday. 
 
 The underwater operation has been "modified" and experts have started searching a larger area of the southern Indian Ocean even before a survey of the original zone has been completed. 
 
 Until now, the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 had been focused on a 23,000-square mile patch where investigators said it probably crashed. 
 
 The expanded zone covers 46,000 square miles — an area about the size of Pennsylvania — and will be increasingly difficult to cover as the local winter weather sets in. 
 
 RELATED: MH370 Hunt Finds Jet Wreckage … Just Not Right Wreckage 
 
 The jetliner disappeared on March 8 last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A joint investigation by Australia and Malaysia, helped by other international experts, has so far concluded from satellite data that the jet probably changed course and headed south for several hours before running out of fuel. 
 
 More than three-quarters of the original search area has been covered so far with no sign of the doomed plane, the Australia Transportation Safety Bureau’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre said in a short written update. 
 
 “The search into the expanded area has already commenced, with search efforts focused in the south to take advantage of the last of the usable weather in that area,” it said. "The search plan has been modified to enable continuous search operations during winter and to ensure that the entire [46,000 square mile] area is searched as quickly and effectively as possible. 
 
 The statement added: “Expert advice is that the highest probability of locating the aircraft is within the [46,000 square mile] search area. Beyond that, it is not possible to refine the search area to one of greater likelihood.” 
 
 RELATED: What a Flight Simulator Can Tell Us About Missing MH370 
 
 The statement did not explain further, and the ATSB did not immediately respond to a request for clarification. 
 
 The expanded search zone was agreed in April by ministers from Australia, Malaysia and China. Most of the missing passengers are Chinese. 
 
 Three specialist ships involved in the ocean floor search — GO Phoenix, Fugro Discovery and Fugro Equator – were all bound for, or returning from, the Australian supply port of Fremantle. 
 
 “Our work will continue to be thorough and methodical, so sometimes weekly progress may seem slow,” it said. “Please be assured that work is continuing and is aimed at finding MH370 as quickly as possible.” 
 
 The expert vessels last week found a previously-uncharted shipwreck almost 13,000 feet below the surface.
– Officials have followed through with their vow to double the search area for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Though just 75% of the initial 23,000-square-mile search zone has been scoured, a statement today says the area has now expanded to 46,000 square miles—about the size of Pennsylvania—in the southern Indian Ocean, NBC News reports. "The search into the expanded area has already commenced, with search efforts focused in the south to take advantage of the last of the usable weather in that area," the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says. As winter weather in the area will make the search difficult, "the search plan has been modified to enable continuous search operations during winter and to ensure that the entire area is searched as quickly and effectively as possible." The new search area, based on satellite data and pings from the plane, offers the "highest probability" of finding the Boeing 777, officials say. "Beyond that, it is not possible to refine the search area to one of greater likelihood." Search crews received a boost of confidence with the discovery of a shipwreck last week because it meant their technology was working, Popular Mechanics reports. However, the robot crucial to that find will be shelved until weather improves, meaning the search could slow. A rep for the National Transportation Safety Board says it's unlikely the search would be abandoned even if the plane isn't found in the new area. "This is so important, not to mention a matter of national pride" to Australia, Malaysia, and China, he says. "It's a big ocean, but I think they will find some wreckage at some point."