In a dramatic development in the search for MH370 the search area is to be moved back to a zone approximately 1700km west of Perth, Western Australia, previously dismissed in late March.
MH370, with 239 passengers and crew vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.
Airlineratings.com has learnt from US sources that the Australian Joint Agency Coordination Centre will announce Thursday June 26th that a six-week analysis of all information related to the Boeing 777’s flight path has resulted in a 500km shift in the search area to the south-west.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the international search, confirmed the area of highest probability would be “further south.”
The search area is still located on what is termed the seventh arc based on the UK based Inmarsat’s satellite interrogation of the Boeing 777 – just much further south.
While the ATSB would not be drawn on precise detail the US sources told AirlineRatings.com that the two ocean floor mapping vessels the Fugro Equator and the Chinese PLA-Navy’s Zhu Kezhen are in the area.
These ships will map the sea bed, which is up to 6000m deep, ahead of a commercial contractor starting a side scan sonar search with a towed Orion vehicle, more capable than the Bluefin 21 used earlier.
The search area is 60,000 sq kms and it could still take up to 12 months to cover the entire area.
When the search first started in the southern Indian Ocean on March 18 the initial search area was 2500km south-west of Perth.
On March 28 on an updated assessment from the ATSB it was moved 1900km due west of Perth.
However, it was only an aerial search.
When Ocean Shield was deployed early in April fresh intelligence from Malaysia led the search to be moved 800km north-east – essentially due west of Exmouth.
The detection of what was thought to be black box pings within days kept the search in that region for over a month despite some misgivings at the ATSB.
After the failure to find MH370 in that area the ATSB convened a comprehensive review of all the data including the critical Inmarsat satellite communications with the Boeing 777.
AirlineRatings.com understands from the US source that at least three independent groups were formed to analyse all the information and all have come to the same conclusion on the most likely crash site of MH370.
