MH 370 - video search starts soon
- Latest News
- Thursday, 20 October 2016
The Dong Hai Jiu 101, a Chinese vessel searching for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean, is to start using an underwater drone fitted with video-imaging capabilities.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said the Dong Hai will be fitted with a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, which has video cameras.
Search crews have picked up hundreds of sonar contacts of interest during the two-year hunt, grouped into three classification levels based on their likelihood of being linked to the plane.
Contacts dubbed classification 1 are considered the most likely to have come from the aircraft.
"The ROV will be tasked to reacquire and investigate, through video imaging, a range of sonar contacts which have been identified during previous deep tow operations," the ATSB said.
"None of the sonar contacts targeted for reacquisition exhibit the characteristics of a typical aircraft debris field and are therefore not classified as category 1 sonar contacts. However some exhibit man-made properties and therefore must be investigated further to be positively eliminated."
The ATSB said more than 68,000 square miles of the southern Indian Ocean have been searched so far. If MH370 is not found or if no credible evidence is found that could lead to a specific location of the aircraft, the search will be suspended after the completion of the 75,000 square mile search area.
MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, after leaving Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia en route to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. Malaysian authorities concluded the flight had ended in the Indian Ocean, but no confirmed MH370 debris was found until last year, when a right wing flaperon was discovered on Reunion Island, east of Madagascar.
Most official comment says the plane did not 'land' on the water, but rather crashed into it. But some commentators have queried whether the plane broke up on entry to the sea because no bodies, hold or cabin luggage have been found, with theories suggesting the fuselage may be intact and the passengers all still inside.
