Budget cuts hit lead MH370 search agency New vessels are set to join the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean. The latest MH370 update ..,. The search for the disappeared Malaysia Airlines" plane continues. THE agency responsible for leading the search for the missing plane MH370 has warned that its ability to investigate other incidents has been hampered by $2 million worth of budget cuts. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau tabled its annual report detailing the impact of losing 12 per cent of staff in the same year as two major air disasters. Since July 2013, the ATSB's staff has fallen from 116 people to 104 with 10 transport investigators among those to go. Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan said MH370 had presented the ATSB with its "greatest challenge yet" particularly in the same year the bureau had lost "more than 200-years of combined corporate and investigative experience." OUTRAGE: MH370 and MH17 themeed Halloween costumes EMIRATES CHIEF: Raises suspicions over true fate of MH370 ATSB has lost more than 200-years of corporate and investigative experience ... Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan. "For the foreseeable future, we will be able to undertake fewer investigations and we will need to carefully consider and constrain the scope of investigations initiated," Mr Dolan said. Our capacity for industry engagement will be limited and the timeliness of the completion of some of the investigations currently underway will be an ongoing challenge. He described MH370 as the most serious aviation occurrence ever to involve the ATSB. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing nearly eight months ago, with 239 people on board including six Australians. " (It) is arguably the most mystifying, expansive and difficult search operation ever undertaken in the history of commercial aircraft," said Mr Dolan. The search for missing commercial flight MH370 ... Underway in the southern Indian Ocean in some form since mid-March. He went on to say the ATSB had also deployed two investigators to the Ukraine in the wake of the MH17 disaster. "We have more than 12 per cent fewer staff and we have been required to task some of our investigation and administration staff to the major and ongoing investigations into the two Malaysia Airlines disasters," he said. More than 100 complex investigations underway at ebd of June 2014 ... The Australian Safety Transport Bureau admits it is stretched to the limit. Mr Dolan did acknowledge the government had provided additional funding to assist with the MH370 search and said that was the reason for the bureau's $5.6 million surplus in 2013-14, compared with a $1.2 million deficit the previous year. The May federal budget allocated $60 million towards the search over two years after Australia and Malaysia agreed to share the cost. A spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said the ATSB had assured the government it would continue to carry out its work with the resources available to them. Mr Dolan said he was confident the ATSB could continue to deliver its brief. "We just have to pay more attention, focusing on the right thing in the right way," he said.