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Searchers have begun sweeping the ocean 1,500km west of Perth for the wreckage of lost Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in what may be the final expedition.
The six-week mission by UK and US-based marine exploration firm Ocean Infinity will survey an area of around 15,000 square kilometres, focusing on four “hotspots” where researchers believe the plane is most likely to be found.
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Based from deep-water support vessel Armada 7806, the team is deploying autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to scan the sea floor for signs of the missing 777-200ER, which disappeared after veering wildly off course from a flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing in March 2014.
Ocean Infinity was part of a previous search in 2018, which lasted from January to June of that year without success. The current search area will encompass regions of the sea bed not covered in prior missions, including those conducted with the ATSB.
According to Australian researcher Mick Gilbert, part of the “Independent Group” of MH370 investigators, the search will be an “extraordinarily challenging task”.
“Ocean Infinity have defined their search areas around the best estimates for where MH370 may have ended its flight based on the evidence to hand, namely the aircraft’s known performance characteristics, the weather along likely flight paths that night and morning, the satellite data and oceanographic modelling of the paths likely taken by the recovered wreckage items,” he told The Australian.
“All that said, Ocean Infinity are just working on best estimates built on a very sparse set of data.”
Ocean Infinity was in discussions with the Malaysian government in December to resume the search on a US$70 million “no find, no fee” contract. At the time, Malaysian transport minister Anthony Loke said the proposal was “solid”, but stressed there was no guarantee the plane would be found.
“It has been over 10 years, and it would be unfair to expect a concrete commitment. However, under the terms and conditions, any discovery must be credible. It cannot just be a few fragments; there are specific criteria outlined in the contract,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in December said the Australian government is “supportive of all credible efforts to find MH370”.
