A new diagram from the ATSB showing the existing search area in purple and the new area in orange. Picture: Supplied

The First Principles Review released by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau recommends searching another 25,000 square kilometres of the Southern Indian Ocean to the north of the current area.

“Based on the analysis to date, completion of this area would exhaust all prospective areas for the presence of MH370,” said the report.

The conclusion was reached after reanalysing the last two satellite transmissions, the likely position of the aircraft’s wing flaps at impact and results from recent “end of flight” simulations.

Experts from Boeing, the CSIRO, the US National Transportation Safety Board, the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch, the Defence Science and Technology Group, Inmarsat and the Malaysian Government took part in the three-day review in November.

In this March 31, 2014, file photo, HMAS Success scans the southern Indian Ocean, near the coast of Western Australia for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Picture: AP Photo/Rob GriffithSource:AP

They agreed that all evidence pointed to the Malaysia Airlines’ flight making seafall further north than initially thought after running out of fuel.

“The experts also agreed that CSIRO’s debris drift modelling results present strong evidence that the aircraft is most likely to be located to the north of the current indicative underwater search area,” said a statement from the ATSB.

“When considered together with updated flight path modelling, the experts concluded that an unsearched area between latitudes 33°S and 36°S along the 7th arc of approximately 25,000 km², has the highest probability of containing the wreckage of the aircraft.”

The complex and often dangerous underwater search of the Southern Indian Ocean began in October 2014 following months of planning and mapping of the sea floor.

The floor of the Southern Indian Ocean floor has been scoured in the search for MH370, to no avail. Picture: ATSBSource:Supplied

As months and years passed, hopes faded of finding the Boeing 777 in the 120,000 square kilometre priority zone and drift modelling pointed to a crash site north of the area.

The three countries overseeing the search, Australia, Malaysia and China, announced in July the operation would be suspended at the completion of the current zone, in the absence of credible new evidence of the plane’s final resting place.

Around $200 million has been spent on the search of which Australian taxpayers have contributed $90 million.

The ATSB statement indicated responsibility for any continuation of the search lay with Malaysia.

“Given the international protocols for aircraft recovery scenarios such as this, Malaysia will continue to take the central role in the determination of any future course of action in the search for MH370,” said the statement.

The flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared less than an hour into its journey on March 8, 2014.

There were 239 people on board including six Australians.