U.S. official says MH370 search likely to last for years

Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Captain Flight Lieutenant Timothy McAlevey sits in the cockpit of a RNZAF P3 Orion maritime search aircraft as it flies over the southern Indian Ocean looking for debris from missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 April 11, 2014. REUTERS/Richard Wainwright/Pool

SYDNEY/PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is likely to drag on for years, a senior U.S. defence official said on Friday, as an underwater search for any trace of the plane's wreckage off west Australia appeared to have failed.

The official, who declined to be identified because he is not authorised to comment on the search effort, said two weeks of scouring the Indian Ocean floor with a U.S. Navy submersible drone had turned up no wreckage.