By Richard Shears Instead, the search will enter a new phase with the focus on the ocean floor - despite there being no 'pings' from what was earlier hoped were the aircraft's black boxes. Mr Abbott said that as the aircraft, which had 239 people on board, has been missing for 52 days, if there had been any debris from the aircraft it would have now sunk. Scroll down for video Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (left) and Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston announced yesterday that the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 would move to a new face as it is now 'highly unlikely' that wreckage will be foundo n the ocean's surface
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Search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight will move to a new stage, focusing on ocean floor rather than surface search
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Any debris from the aircraft would have sunk by now, said Australian PM
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Search is in its 52nd day, search teams concede no progress has been made
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Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has expressed doubts that MH370 crashed into the Indian Ocean and blamed Boeing for its fate
Searchers for missing @placeholder face tough choices on how to proceed after almost seven fruitless weeks, with only a fraction of a deep-sea zone still left to be scanned