Missing Malaysian jet's search will be 'biggest, most expensive' ever, says expert

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will most likely be the most expensive hunt in history, an expert has said.

David Mearns, owner of Blue Water Recoveries in West Sussex and one of the world's most experienced deep-sea shipwreck salvagers, described the efforts that would be undertaken to recover the plane.

According to the Independent, he said that the operation would be divided into two phases: recovery and salvage.

Mearns said the wreckage may be contained in what he described as a 'search box' covering hundreds of nautical miles.

He added that search operation is going to be the biggest search box ever, many times bigger than any other tragedy. This will take months, maybe years.

In what Mearns predicted would become the most expensive search ever, specialist teams would only recover what was required to answer why MH370 vanished from radar screens.

He warned that once parts of the plane were returned to Perth it would take 'a year or two' for causes of the crash to be confirmed.