Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 search may be used for oil, gas, and mineral exploration. Two features within the search area—Broken Ridge and the Kerguelen Plateau—potentially contain oil and gas deposits, while a field of manganese nodules—which also contain iron ore, nickel, copper, and cobalt—on the seafloor could also be exploited. Geoscience Australia published some of the underwater survey data in March 2017. Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 The disappearance on 8 March 2014 of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a scheduled international passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport, prompted a large, multinational search in Asia and the southern
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Airlines from China, where the majority of passengers were from, were down 60% in March. In late March, several major Chinese ticketing agencies—eLong, LY.com, Qunar and Mango—discontinued the sale of airline tickets to Malaysia and several large Chinese travel agencies reported a 50-percent drop in tourists compared to the same period the year before. China was the third largest source of visitors to Malaysia prior to Flight 370's disappearance, accounting for 1.79 million tourists in 2013. One market analyst predicted a 20–40% drop in Chinese tourists to Malaysia, resulting in a loss of 4–8 billion yuan (RM2.1–4.2 billion; US$0.65–1.3 billion).