澳官員：失蹤客機搜尋行動可能會曠日持久

An Australian official has warned that the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane "could drag on for a long time" as crews continue to try to find any trace of the aircraft more than three weeks after it vanished.

Former defense chief Angus Houston, who is leading a new joint coordination agency, said 10 military aircraft are working Tuesday searching an area in the Indian Ocean described as the size of Ireland. He said the task has been difficult because the last known location of the plane is far from where it appears to have gone.

He said the search was the most challenging he has seen, and that so far search crews have not found anything connected to the plane that went missing March 8 with 239 people on board.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is due to travel to Australia on Wednesday.一名澳大利亞官員說，搜尋馬航失蹤客機的行動“可能會曠日持久”，目前有關人員正在繼續努力尋找有關這架客機的線索。這架客機失蹤已經超過三星期。

新成立的聯合搜尋協調中心負責人、前澳大利亞國防部長安格斯·休斯頓說，10架軍用飛機星期二在印度洋海域執行搜尋任務，搜尋面積相當於愛爾蘭。休斯頓表示，失蹤客機的最後確知位置距離這架客機可能墜毀地點看來很遠，因此搜尋難度很大。

休斯頓說，這是他所知道的最棘手的搜尋行動，到目前爲止，尚未發現任何與失蹤客機有關的東西。這架載有239人的客機於3月8日失蹤。

星期三，馬來西亞總理納吉布將前往澳大利亞。