Search for MH370 could drag on for long time: Aussie coordination chief

The ongoing search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 could drag on for a long time, new Australian coordination chief said on Tuesday. [Special coverage]

The search and recovery operation "is the most challenging one that I have seen," former Australian defense chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston told reporters.

Houston, who leads the newly established Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC), said the crucial job now is to find the debris or wreckage of the missing plane, so as to narrow the search to a smaller area and use advanced equipments to locate the black box.

There are 11 planes and nine ships joining the search on Tuesday, according to Houston.

More than three weeks after Flight MH370, with 239 people onboard, disappeared on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, its fate and whereabouts remain unknown.