MH370 - Search for MH370 covers bigger area than Tokyo, with no success, but more ships on way

OCTOBER 29, 2014 5:47PM

THE search for MH370 has now covered an area bigger than Tokyo and there is still no trace of the missing Boeing 777.

It will be eight months next week since the Malaysia Airlines aircraft disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, including six Australians.

The latest update from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said 2500 square kilometres of seabed in the southern Indian Ocean had been searched, and the operation was ongoing.

Search continues...MH370 search vessel Go Phoenix will head back out to its designated site on Sunday. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

The area is larger than Tokyo in size, and more than three times the size of Canberra.

But it represents just four per cent of the total “high priority search area” identified after painstaking analysis of satellite communications with the aircraft in its final hours.

An even larger area — 150,000 square kilometres — has now been mapped by the ATSB providing an unprecedented overview of the largely unexplored seabed.

The ATSB update said “in addition to locating the aircraft, the underwater search aims to identify any crucial evidence (such as aircraft wreckage and flight recorders) to assist with the Malaysian investigation”.

“The ATSB has used the data from the bathymetric survey work to prepare the initial plan for the underwater search, to be followed and referred to by all parties involved.

“The plan includes search timings, methods, procedures, safety precautions and search areas.”

One vessel, the Fugro Discovery, is currently involved in the underwater search.

Disagrees...Emirates president Tim Clark does not accept the theory the aircraft flew on autopilot for seven hours before running out of fuel. Picture: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images Source: Contour by Getty Images

It will be joined by Go Phoenix this weekend, and Fugro Equator next month.

Weather conditions have improved and are expected to remain relatively stable right through until May.

Theories as to what happened to the aircraft vary but the ATSB is of the view the plane flew for around seven hours after diverting south between Malaysia and Vietnam.

It is then believed to have ditched into the ocean after running out of fuel.

Australia and Malaysia are jointly funding the search which is likely to cost in excess of $150 million.

The Federal Government’s May budget allocated $90 million to the search over two years.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/