Poor Weather Might Hamper Search for MH370

Despite the bad weather conditions the search continues for the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, after it disappeared with 239 people on board during its March 8 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The bathymetric survey work was completed on October 26 with more than 3000 square kilometres of the seafloor covered so far and might restart in the future if needed.

Fugro Equator and Zhu Kezhen have mapped more than 160 000 square kilometres in their multibeam data acquisition of the search area.

An Otto Marine vessel GO Phoenix began its underwater search on November 4 after arriving for a port call at Fremantle to be resupplied.

Fugro Discovery had to suspend the search operations last week on Friday due to severe weather but was able to recommence the search on Monday after the conditions improved.

After finalising the multibeam data acquisition, Fugro Equator arrived at Fremantle on October 31 to be reconfigured to accommodate a deep tow vehicle identical to that currently in use by Fugro Discovery, after which its expected to depart for the search area next week.

“Poor weather conditions, including gale force winds, in some parts of the search area are likely to affect operations over the coming week. Weather conditions are however expected to improve over the summer months,” ATSB said.

Subsea World News Staff