bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Australia has chosen a Dutch firm to help it map the Indian Ocean floor as the search for missing flight MH370 heads deeper under water.
Netherlands-based Fugro Survey will help a Chinese military vessel survey the ocean bed as part of the next stage of the quest to find the Malaysia Airlines plane that vanished three months ago.
The announcement came after Australian and Malaysian officials met in Canberra to discuss funding and assets for the unprecedented mission, after a huge air and sea search failed to find any sign of the aircraft.
Months of searching has failed to turn up any trace of the Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8 carrying 239 people after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.
The next phase of the search, which will be handed over from the military to the private sector, is expected to start in August and take up to a year, covering 60,000 sq km of ocean at a cost of at least A$60 million (HK$435 million).
The search is already the most expensive in aviation history.
"The bathymetric survey will provide a map of the underwater search zone, charting the contours, depths and composition of the sea floor in water depths up to 6,000 metres," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said.
Fugro's state-of-the-art vessel MV Fugro Equator, which is equipped with a deep water multibeam echo sounder system, will work with Chinese PLA Navy ship Zhu Kezhen.
The two vessels are expected to take about three months to complete the mapping ahead of the underwater search by an as-yet undetermined contractor.
Malaysia's costs for the search mission have so far been about one-tenth of the US$84 million Australia expects to spend on the search for the plane.
"The government has allocated A$89.9 million. I think about A$25 million of that is to go to the defence force for the visual search they conducted," retired air chief marshal Angus Houston, who is head of the Joint Agency Coordination Centre , said.
The remaining A$60 million has been allocated to the underwater operation in the southern Indian Ocean where the plane is believed to have crashed.
Malaysian Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri said the "costs will be shared 50-50 between Malaysia and Australia".


Families of MH370 passengers urge Malaysia to extend ocean search

Will Ocean Infinity finally solve the flight MH370 mystery in Indian Ocean?

Chinese court orders Malaysia Airlines to pay families of 8 missing MH370 victims

Malaysia resumes MH370 search with Ocean Infinity in Indian Ocean after more than a decade

Malaysia Airlines flight 370

Dutch firm to help PLA map sea floor in search for Flight MH370

Months of searching has failed to turn up any trace of MH370, which disappeared on March 8 carrying 239 people after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. Photo: AP

News

Asia

Next phase expected to start in August and take up to a year, covering 60,000 sq km of ocean


Australia has chosen a Dutch firm to help it map the Indian Ocean floor as the search for missing flight MH370 heads deeper under water.


Dutch firm to help PLA map sea floor in search for Flight MH370

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Next phase expected to start in August and take up to a year, covering 60,000 sq km of ocean

Next phase expected to start in August and take up to a year, covering 60,000 sq km of ocean