Flight MH370 Update: Missing Malaysian Plane Will Be Found Once Search Area Is Widened, Deep Sea Experts Say

Nearly two years after Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from radar in March 2014, experts said despite the seemingly endless search, the plane would "eventually" be found, Forbes reported Tuesday. The first and only piece of physical evidence to be recovered from the plane was a flaperon that washed ashore on France's Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean in July, leaving friends and family to wonder if they would ever know what happened to their loved ones.

The search has continued for so long because investigators were not searching in a large enough area, according to one expert. “They have narrowed the search area based on too many assumptions ... to include such factors as control of the plane, fuel consumption, altitude and wind,” retired U.S. Navy Capt. Art Wright of Williamson and Associates, a deep-sea consulting firm, told Forbes Tuesday. “It might be in thirty years, but if it’s down there, it will [likely] show up,” he said.

Flight MH370 disappeared from radar during its trajectory from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing somewhere over the Indian Ocean. A broad range of theories as to what happened to it have proliferated since its mysterious disappearance.

An international search team has been scouring vast areas of the Indian Ocean in search of the plane for nearly two years. Investigators will never completely understand the fate of MH370 until the black box, or flight data recorder, is recovered from the cockpit, according to experts. The black box records conversations between the crew and would provide important details as to whether a technical failure occurred. Discovery of the black box is unlikely, however, as the radar ping emitted by the black box stops after one month.

Most investigators have adopted the theory that a technical problem caused the cabin to lose oxygen, in turn leading the captain and crew to lose consciousness. One Australian Transport Safety Bureau representative told the newspaper the Australian Sunday that theories concerning a rogue or suicidal captain have been generally dismissed.