Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Update: Vessels Readying Search for Plane in Indian Ocean

Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Update: Vessels Readying Search for Plane in Indian Ocean
The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared nearly six months ago, will start up again in a few weeks, and an Australian official has said that the search for the plane could go farther south than previously expected. A Malaysia Airlines plane prepares to land at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur on August 27, 2014. (Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images)
Jack Phillips
9/26/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

The team investigating the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will resume searching for the plane in the southern Indian Ocean at the end of September.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported this week that the underwater vehicles will go further south than previously anticipated, following a revision made by analysts.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the sonar search “will most likely extend south of the previous ‘orange’ priority area.” It added, “Recent refinement to the analysis has given greater certainty about when the aircraft turned south into the Indian Ocean.”

In a previous update, the agency said the Malaysian GO Phoenix vessel is being readied.

“Mobilisation of search assets is already under way. GO Phoenix received fit-out work in Jakarta in preparation for the sea and weather conditions it is likely to encounter in the search area. GO Phoenix departed Jakarta on 23 September for the calibration area and is expected to arrive at the allocated underwater search area on 1 October. GO Phoenix will search there for around 20 days before sailing to Fremantle to be resupplied,” it said in a statement on its website.

The Fugro Equator vessel arrived in Australia this week and will do a seafloor scan before doing a deep-sea sonar search in the end of October.

Meanwhile the Fugro Discovery ship will arrive in Australia Oct. 2.

Also, new maps of the ocean floor have been released Friday in relation to the search.

The images were published on NBC News and are of the remote southern Indian Ocean.

The plane disappeared on March 8, and no trace of the jetliner has been found.

“The recently acquired high-resolution bathymetry data has revealed many of these seabed features for the first time,” the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement.

The plane had 239 people on board, traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

 

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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