Drift analysis says MH370 likely crashed north of search

FILE - In this July 29, 2015 file photo, French police officers look over a piece of debris from a plane in Saint-Andre, Reunion Island. The wing was later found to be from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that went missing March 8, 2014, with 239 people aboard while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Analysis of a genuine Boeing 777 wing flap has reaffirmed experts' opinion that a missing Malaysian airliner most likely crashed north of an abandoned search area in the Indian Ocean, officials said Friday, April 21, 2017. The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 ended in January after a deep-sea sonar scan failed to find any trace of the plane. But research has continued in an effort to refine a possible new search. (AP Photo/Lucas Marie, File) (The Associated Press)

CANBERRA, Australia – Analysis of a genuine Boeing 777 wing flap has reaffirmed experts' opinion that a missing Malaysian airliner most likely crashed north of an abandoned search area in the Indian Ocean.

The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 ended in January after a deep-sea sonar scan southwest of Australia failed to find any trace of the plane that vanished in 2014. But research has continued in an effort to refine a possible new search.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement Friday it obtained a wing flap of the same model as the original and studied how that part drifted in the ocean. Previous drift modeling used inexact replicas.

The new analysis confirmed findings released in December that the airliner had likely crashed north of the searched area.