PERTH, Australia (AP) — Every day from the Perth airport and a nearby military base, about a dozen planes from several countries take flight to search for debris from missing Flight 370 — so far without success. The U.S. Defense Department alone committed $7.3 million to the effort in the first month of the search, much of it spent on two U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon planes that cost $4,000 per hour to fly.

Lt. Cmdr. Adam Schantz is the officer in charge of the 32 air and ground crew manning the surveillance aircraft, which are modified Boeing 737s. This is an edited version of the interview: