MH370 search vessel Seabed Constructor is set to head back to Western Australia to change its crew, refuel and pick up supplies after venturing north of 30°S in its quest to find the missing Boeing 777.
After ending its sweep of the 25,000 sq. km zone favored as a potential crash site by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and other experts, the vessel completed its search of a second site and has been working on Site 3.
Read: Malaysia puts final MH370 report on hold pending a search outcome.
The MH370 response team recently added a fourth site extension to its search map, suggesting search backer Ocean Infinity will continue searching to the north-east of the original extension sites if necessary. The fourth zone appears on the diagram to extend between 27°S and 26°S.
The high-tech Seabed Constructor and its fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles have investigated several anomalies that turned out to be geological formations but not the aircraft, which disappeared with 239 passengers and crew during a March, 2014, flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The search has been in less formidable territory since moving on to the Broken Ridge Plateau and there is still a possibility the plane will be found.
Drift modeling by the University of Western Australia Professor Charitha Pattiaratchi indicated the priority region that needed targeting went as far north as 28°S along the 7th arc.
However, the Seabed Constructor may have already covered a potential “warm spot” around 30°S related to debris seen from a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion on March 28, 2014.
Experts had only minimal evidence on which to base their theories about potential crash sites and some key assumptions will need to be re-assessed if the plane is not found close to the 7th arc by the OI search.
Nonetheless, people continue to chip away at the problem. The Independent Group of experts, for example, is examing data from civilian radar that provides insight into how MH370 was flown after the plane’s transponder was turned off.
The search has now covered more than twice the search area originally envisaged by global experts who met in Canberra in late 2016.
A new MH370 Response team update said that by April 22, the ship had searched 53,000 sq. km in Sites 1 and 2 and 11,500 sq. km. within Site 3.
The Malaysian Government contract gives Ocean Infinity 90 days to find the plane in a “no cure, no fee” search that would net the company $US70m if successful. This does not include the time spent traveling to and from port to refuel and take on new crew and supplies.
