Investigators leading the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have said the plane is not likely to be in the current search area, but could be further north.
Search vessels and aircraft have been looking for the plane for more than two years. Photo: AFP
Search vessels have been combing a vast 120,000 sq km patch of the Indian Ocean.
No wreckage has been found yet and the operation is due to end early next year.
The plane had 239 people on board travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, including Perth-based New Zealander Paul Weeks, when it disappeared in 2014.
Some debris pieces confirmed to be from MH370 have since been found along the African coast and islands in the Indian Ocean by private citizens.
The governments of Australia, Malaysia and China had agreed to end the search operation unless there was "credible new information".
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), tasked to coordinate the search, convened a review with a multi-national team of aviation and science experts in November.
Its latest report, based on that meeting, concluded that "defined indicative underwater area is unlikely to contain the missing aircraft".
Experts identified a new area of approximately 25,000 sq km to the north of the current search area that had the "highest probability" of containing the wreckage.
This, they said, was the last area the plane could possibly be located, given current evidence.
Their conclusion was based on new flight simulations and analysis of satellite communications, as well as drift modelling patterns based on the timing and locations of the discovery of debris.
They also said the plane was on an "unstable flight path" and that its wing flaps were in a retracted position, in line with earlier findings by the ATSB that the plane made a "rapid and uncontrolled descent".
The ATSB said it had presented the recommendation to the Malaysian, Chinese and Australian governments.
Only one vessel is left searching for the plane in the current search area.
- BBC
