KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 ― After further analysis of satellite data the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has shifted further south in the Indian Ocean.

The Boeing 777, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared on March 8 shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.

According to the Telegraph, the new priority search area “was determined after a review of satellite data and early radar information as the plane suddenly diverted across the Malaysian peninsular and headed south into one of the remotest areas of the planet.”

“It is highly, highly likely that the aircraft was on autopilot otherwise it could not have followed the orderly path that has been identified through the satellite sightings,” Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss was quoted by CBC News as saying.

The new search area will cover 23,000 squares miles in an area where the ocean is about 1.9 to 3.1 miles deep.

Set to start in August, the underwater hunt for the wreckage will take up to a year at a cost of $56 million or more, CBC News reported. The search is already the most expensive in aviation history.

Currently, along the new search area, two vessels, one Chinese and one from Dutch engineering company Fugro have started mapping the seafloor.

The BBC said that once the ocean floor is mapped, the world’s best submersibles will be deployed to start hunting for the plane wreckage. ― Reuters

The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has shifted further south in the Indian Ocean. ― Reuters pic