Police have resumed the search for 23-year-old missing airman Corrie McKeague today at a landfill site in Milton, Cambridgeshire.
An extended search of the site, which is expected to take around four to six weeks, will concentrate on an area of cell 22, close to the site of the initial search for the airman.
The original search lasted 20 weeks before a decision was made to call it off on July 21 after no evidence of his body was found.
The RAF gunner went missing on September 24 last year after a night out in Bury St Edmunds.
He was last seen on CCTV at 3.24am near a loading area behind Greggs, known as the horseshoe.
The new search area, in Milton, Cambridgeshire, is the next most likely place where Mr McKeague could be found, Suffolk police said.
A spokesman said: “Careful re-checking of the data available to the Major Investigation Team has concluded the area of the original 20-week search is still the location where there was the highest likelihood of finding Corrie.
“However, the nature of waste disposal and its movement is not a precise science, hence the requirement to extend the search.”
Officers have been seen scouring the area as a digger moved the rubbish this morning.
Mr McKeague, is from Fife, Scotland, but was based at RAF Honington in Suffolk.
Detective Superintendent Katie Elliott, of Suffolk police, added: “Throughout this rigorous investigation we have remained committed to following all reasonable lines of inquiry in our endeavours to discover what has happened to Corrie.
“Confronted by the variances in the way waste can be deposited and through further investigation we cannot discount the possibility Corrie may be elsewhere in Cell 22.
“Therefore, we believe our decision to extend the search area is the correct one.”
A bin lorry was spotted on CCTV near Brentgovel Street in Bury St Edmunds around the time Mr McKeague was last seen.
It took a route which appeared to coincide with the movements of his phone.
The bin lorry linked to Mr McKeague’s disappearance was initially thought to have collected a 24lb (11kg) load, but police said it was later found to be more than 220lb (100kg).
Mr McKeague’s girlfriend, April Oliver, announced in June that the missing serviceman had become a father with the birth of their daughter, Ellie-Louise.
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