Fugro Supporter to Join MH370 Search

A fourth ship will join the underwater search for a Malaysia Airlines plane, 10 months after it disappeared off the west coast of Australia, an official said on Monday.

According to latest reports, the vessel Fugro Supporter was on its way to the search area after conducting trials off the Indonesian island of Bali, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said in a statement.

The M.V. Fugro Supporter is a multipurpose survey vessel operated by Fugro Pelagos, Inc., and based out of Singapore. The vessel primarily specializes in cable route surveys and is fitted with geophysical and geotechnical equipment

The vessel has a versatile platform capable of deploying work class ROVs, AUVs, and both 2-D and 3-D High Resolution seismic spreads.

Not a single trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been found since the Boeing 777 vanished with 239 people aboard on March 8 last year during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

By now, the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has covered more than 14,000 square kilometres of the seafloor.

The vessels already conducting the search are Fugro Equator, Fugro Discovery and GO Phoenix. According to the latest ATSB update, assuming no significant delays with vessels, equipment or from the weather, the current underwater search area may be largely completed around May 2015.