Malaysian minister confident MH370 will be found as second ship joins hunt

A second ship is joining the hunt for Malaysia Airlines flight 370 in a remote patch of the Indian Ocean, with Malaysia's defence minister expressing confidence the plane would be found.

The Discovery, provided by Dutch contractor Fugro, was scheduled to arrive in the search zone about 1,800km west of Australia late yesterday, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said. The GO Phoenix, a Malaysian ship that has been combing the area since early October, is in the Western Australian city of Fremantle getting fresh supplies.

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who was in Australia to greet the GO Phoenix during its return to port, said everything possible was being done to find the Boeing 777, which inexplicably disappeared on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, about two-thirds of them from China.

"We must continue to hope because sometimes hope is all we have," he said. "We will find MH370."

Hishammuddin was acting transport minister when the plane went missing and led Malaysia's search for the jet before Liow Tiong Lai replaced him in the transport portfolio in June.

The search ships are dragging sonar devices called towfish through the water about 100 metres above the seabed to hunt for the wreckage. The towfish, which are also equipped with jet fuel sensors, transmit data in real-time to those on board the vessels.

The underwater search resumed in early October after being on hold for four months while crews mapped the seabed in the 60,000 sq km search zone. The GO Phoenix has searched over 1,200 sq km so far.