KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — The missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 is “very likely” to be found by July, an Australian official has said as the global search team he heads focuses its underwater hunt on the last 120,000 square kilometre stretch of the Indian Ocean.

On the second anniversary of the jet’s inexplicable disappearance, Martin Dolan, head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), said the team had gone over nearly three-quarters of their designated search area over the past two years and were confident they would find it, UK paper The Guardian reported today.

“It’s as likely on the last day (of the search) as on the first that the aircraft would be there. We’ve covered nearly three-quarters of the search area, and since we haven’t found the aircraft in those areas, that increases the likelihood that it’s in the areas we haven’t looked at yet.

“We’ll cover those very thoroughly and I hope our next conversation is going to be about how we found the aircraft,” he was quoted saying.

Dolan’s optimism is based on the strength of the analysis of the jumbo jet’s last satellite communications, which he said the ATSB sometimes has difficulty to get across to the man-on-the-street due to the technical language.

“And that is why there’s not always a good understanding of why we’re so confident in what we’re doing,” he was quoted saying.

A piece of wreckage identified as a flaperon or part of a wing washed up on the French island colony of Reunion in east Africa last July, which has been accepted to be from MH370.

Last week, another metal piece with the words “No Step” washed up on Mozambique, drawing speculation that it is also from the same plane. Investigators are still examining the flotsam.

If verified, the pieces would indicate the authorities are searching in the right place.