Dutch firm Fugro Survey Pty Ltd. will start searching for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight 370 (MH370) on the sea floor from September onwards. The daunting task will require Fugro to search the high priority 60,000 square kilometer area and government officials remain optimistic on finding the remains of the airline.
The MH370 was a scheduled international passenger flight, which took off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8 this year and went missing on its way to Beijing. Just after one hour of take-off, the flight lost contact with the air traffic control and since then the flight carrying 12 Malaysian crew member and 227 passengers is missing.
The missing flight triggered many countries to join hands and provide support for finding the missing MH370. Several government search efforts have pointed out that the flight may have drowned in the southern Indian Ocean, but the debris has still not been found.
On Wednesday, Aug. 6, Warren Truss, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Martin Dolan, Chief Commissioner, Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in Canberra, held a press conference in Canberra to provide an update on the search efforts for MH370.
Truss said that Fugro has been contracted to perform underwater search for MH370 in the high-priority area of the southern Indian Ocean. Search work is already undergoing and the latest contract will try to find any evidence of the airlines, which will help Malaysian authorities conduct relevant investigation. The aim of Fugro will also be to find the black box of MH370, which can offer vital information regarding the disappearance of the airline.
"Fugro will mobilise its vessels Fugro Equator and Fugro Discovery, both fitted with specialist deep tow survey systems for the work. Since June, the Fugro Equator has been involved in the bathymetric survey of the search area," said Fugro.
It has been around five months since the aircraft has gone missing and many people have lost hope of finding the MH370. However, Truss' statement suggests that he still has hope of finding at least some remains of MH370.
"I remain cautiously optimistic that we will locate the missing aircraft within the priority search area. This search will obviously be a challenging one," says Truss.
The contract is worth AUS $60 million and the search work will start by the end of September this year. However, the mission may end if the Dutch company is able to find the remains of MH370 earlier.
David Mearns, a U.K.-based deep sea search and recovery expert says that the plane can only be found if the right place is searched by the Dutch firm.
