MH370 - Video cameras will look at seabed

• OCTOBER 02, 2014 7:03AM

SEARCH vessels towing sonar equipment and video cameras are now just days away from reaching the site in the Indian Ocean where MH370 is thought to have crashed seven months ago.

After months of painstaking technical analysis and seabed surveys, the underwater search for the missing Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777 is expected to start on Sunday.

The aircraft disappeared on March 8 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. There were 239 people on board including six Australians, and New Zealand born Perth resident Paul Weeks.

Contracted vessel GO Phoenix will be the first to reach the priority search site along a defined arc in the southern Indian Ocean.

Detailed mapping ... completed off the southern Indian Ocean where MH370 is believed to have come down after running out of fuel. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

Information posted by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau yesterday said the vessel would conduct a 12-day operation before sailing to Fremantle to be resupplied.

Two more vessels will join the GO Phoenix in coming days and weeks focusing on the area where the flight is thought to have run out of fuel and ditched into the ocean.

As well as sensitive sonar equipment, the vessels will be towing video cameras on lengthy cables to provide crews with a “closer look” at any objects of interest.

Searching for clues ... 3D images such as this have given investigators a better idea of what the sea bed looks like in the Indian Ocean where MH370 is believed to be. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

The cables are several kilometres long in order to get as close to the sea floor as possible.

Some parts of the search area are as far as seven kilometres underwater and feature extinct volcanoes, cliffs and deep depressions.

Although the ATSB information suggests there’s a “very high probability” of finding MH370, Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan has been careful to offer no guarantees to the grieving families of those on board.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has also been cautious in building up the hopes of devastated families even suggesting the aircraft may never be found.

Ready to go ... the Australian-contracted survey ship M/V Fugro Discovery, which along with the Malaysian-contracted GO Phoenix, will soon start a new search for flight MH370. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

Australia and Malaysia are jointly funding the $57 million search operation that has used unprecedented techniques to map the final movements of the aircraft.

Although theories abound as to what may have happened to MH370, Malaysia Airlines has warned against speculation out of consideration for the loved ones of those on board.

Much of the focus has been on pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah who reportedly used a flight simulator at his home to plot a path to a remote island in the southern Indian Ocean.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/