Flight MH370 has not been forgotten: Truss
The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has not been overshadowed by last week's downing of flight MH17, the Australian deputy prime minister says.
The Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board, and is thought to have crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
But the world has been watching the drama in eastern Ukraine following the suspected shooting down of flight MH17 last Thursday, killing all 298 people on board.
It is suspected Russian-backed separatists fired a missile at the plane, possibly in error believing it to be a cargo plane.
"I want to assure the families of those on MH370 that we have not forgotten the importance of maintaining the search for that aircraft; we are continuing that search uninterrupted," Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told reporters in Darwin on Friday.
He said Chinese and Australian vessels were mapping the sea surface in the next area of the Indian Ocean to be searched, and says the government is close to issuing a tender for the next-stage sonar search of a 60,000 square kilometre area.
"No resources are being taken away from that search for the MH17 effort; they're different people doing a different kind of job and we remain just as committed to finding that aircraft and giving comfort to those families."
