New Underwater Search for MH370 Starting Oct. 1
The search vessel GO Phoenix is expected to reach the search area then and then search for about 20 days before leaving to be resupplied.
A new underwater search for the missing Malaysian Airlines MH370 jetliner will begin Oct. 1 in the southern Indian Ocean, now that some other ships have completed a bathymetric survey of more than 106,000 square kilometers (about 41,000 square miles) of the sea floor in the search area.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reported the first ship to be involved in this new phase is the GO Phoenix, which received fit-out work in Jakarta in preparation for the sea and weather conditions it is likely to encounter in the search area; it is expected to reach the search area on Oct. 1. GO Phoenix will search for around 20 days before sailing to Fremantle, Australia, to be resupplied.
Another search vessel is en route to Australia and a third vessel, the Fugro Equator, is continuing survey work until the end of October. Vessels involved in the search are being jointly funded by Malaysia and Australia.
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 airliner with 239 people on board, lost contact with air traffic controllers March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.