4th ship joins MH370 underwater search

Agence France-Presse

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

4th ship joins MH370 underwater search

EPA

The Fugro Supporter is set to join fellow ships Fugro Equator and Fugro Discovery in the remote search zone in the southern Indian Ocean

SYDNEY, Australia – A fourth ship with enhanced search capabilities has been commissioned to join the underwater hunt for missing flight MH370, Australian authorities said Wednesday, January 14, with 14,000 square kilometers (5,405 square miles) of the sea floor scoured so far.

The Fugro Supporter is set to join fellow ships Fugro Equator and Fugro Discovery in the remote search zone in the southern Indian Ocean, where officials believe the Malaysian Airlines aircraft carrying 239 people might have crashed.

The jet disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 and no sign of it has been found despite a massive air and sea operation.

“(The Fugro Supporter) is equipped with an autonomous underwater vehicle,” spokesman Daniel O’Malley of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the search, told Agence France-Presse.

“That will be used to scan the portions of the search area that can’t be searched effectively by the equipment on the other search vessels.”

The Supporter is due to join the hunt far off western Australia in late January.

Along with the Equator and Discovery, the Supporter has been provided by Dutch company Fugro and jointly funded by the Australian and Malaysian governments. GO Phoenix is contracted by the Malaysian government.

If there are no delays, the current search is expected to be completed in May. 

About 208,000 square kilometers of ocean has been mapped.

Australia has been spearheading the hunt for the plane, a dauntingly vast task that has been beset by false leads and initial confusion – to the continued frustration of grieving relatives, mostly from China. – Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!