01-05-2018, 11:26 AM
Update 05 Jan '18: OI no find, no fee MH370 search.
By 'that man', courtesy the Oz
New bid to solve MH370 mystery on ‘no-find, no-fee’ basis
![[Image: 6781162e7f874e4e73efd8ec6d2f7b69?width=650]](http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/6781162e7f874e4e73efd8ec6d2f7b69?width=650)
Ocean Infinity's Seabed Constructor is about to start searching for the MH370.
The Australian 12:00AM January 5, 2018
![[Image: ean_higgins.png]](http://media.theaustralian.com.au/authors/images/bio/ean_higgins.png)
EAN HIGGINS
A new hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is set to start next week, with the ocean search company confident it can find the aircraft within three weeks by using highly advanced technology.
Ocean Infinity, which is undertaking the search on a “no-find, no-fee” basis, confirmed the research vessel it has leased for the project left the South African port of Durban on Tuesday, bound for a new search zone in the southern Indian Ocean.
“Ocean Infinity is hopeful of receiving the final contract award for the resumption of the search for MH370 over the coming days,” spokesman Mark Antelme said.
“With a relatively narrow weather window, we are moving the vessel, Seabed Constructor, towards the vicinity of the possible search zone.”
Malaysia’s transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, said: “We are making preparations and we will announce it next week after we finalise the contract.”
Late last year, the Malaysian government revealed it had reached an in-principle agreement with Ocean Infinity, which is based in Houston, Texas and London, to conduct a new search for the Boeing 777 on the basis it would be paid only if it found the aircraft.
The Malaysian deputy transport minister, Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, said in October that cabinet had agreed “to prepare a special allocation to the Ministry of Transport amounting to between $US20m and $US70m if MH370 aircraft wreckage is successfully found within 90 days”.
MH370 disappeared on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.
About 40 minutes into the flight, radio contact was severed, the plane’s radar transponder was turned off and the aircraft was tracked by primary radar and automatic satellite data back over Malaysia and then on to a long track south.
A two-year underwater search of a 120,000sq km zone led by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau at Malaysia’s request failed to find any trace of the aircraft, and it was called off a year ago.
Based largely on new CSIRO drift modelling of parts of the aircraft found washed up on the other side of the Indian Ocean, the ATSB identified a 25,000sq km new search area directly to the north of the first one.
Then transport minister Darren Chester said the new zone was where Ocean Infinity would search.
![[Image: 68f1498c7534711a88ef61543e3f437d?width=320]](http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/68f1498c7534711a88ef61543e3f437d?width=320)
Two of the world’s leading air-crash investigators, American John Cox and Canadian Larry Vance, have said they believe the mostly intact wing parts of the plane show the ATSB’s theory of the pilots being incapacitated and the aircraft crashing down rapidly is probably wrong, and more likely a rogue pilot flew the plane to the end and ditched it.
ATSB spokesman Paul Sadler referred inquiries on whether the bureau stuck to its “ghost flight” and “death dive” theory to the federal government’s Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre, whose spokesman referred them to the Malaysian government.
Reuters shipping data shows the Seabed Constructor’s next port of call is Perth on February 7.
The ships commissioned by the ATSB in the first search used a single tethered “tow-fish” or a single Autonomous Underwater Vehicle that can be programmed to conduct surveys independently, with sonar imaging.
Ocean Infinity will employ eight AUVs simultaneously.
The company’s technical director, Josh Broussard, told The Economist the new mission would be able to survey 1200sq km a day, meaning the whole search zone could be covered in three weeks.
MTF...P2
By 'that man', courtesy the Oz
New bid to solve MH370 mystery on ‘no-find, no-fee’ basis
Ocean Infinity's Seabed Constructor is about to start searching for the MH370.
The Australian 12:00AM January 5, 2018
EAN HIGGINS
A new hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is set to start next week, with the ocean search company confident it can find the aircraft within three weeks by using highly advanced technology.
Ocean Infinity, which is undertaking the search on a “no-find, no-fee” basis, confirmed the research vessel it has leased for the project left the South African port of Durban on Tuesday, bound for a new search zone in the southern Indian Ocean.
“Ocean Infinity is hopeful of receiving the final contract award for the resumption of the search for MH370 over the coming days,” spokesman Mark Antelme said.
“With a relatively narrow weather window, we are moving the vessel, Seabed Constructor, towards the vicinity of the possible search zone.”
Malaysia’s transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, said: “We are making preparations and we will announce it next week after we finalise the contract.”
Late last year, the Malaysian government revealed it had reached an in-principle agreement with Ocean Infinity, which is based in Houston, Texas and London, to conduct a new search for the Boeing 777 on the basis it would be paid only if it found the aircraft.
The Malaysian deputy transport minister, Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, said in October that cabinet had agreed “to prepare a special allocation to the Ministry of Transport amounting to between $US20m and $US70m if MH370 aircraft wreckage is successfully found within 90 days”.
MH370 disappeared on a scheduled flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board.
About 40 minutes into the flight, radio contact was severed, the plane’s radar transponder was turned off and the aircraft was tracked by primary radar and automatic satellite data back over Malaysia and then on to a long track south.
A two-year underwater search of a 120,000sq km zone led by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau at Malaysia’s request failed to find any trace of the aircraft, and it was called off a year ago.
Based largely on new CSIRO drift modelling of parts of the aircraft found washed up on the other side of the Indian Ocean, the ATSB identified a 25,000sq km new search area directly to the north of the first one.
Then transport minister Darren Chester said the new zone was where Ocean Infinity would search.
Two of the world’s leading air-crash investigators, American John Cox and Canadian Larry Vance, have said they believe the mostly intact wing parts of the plane show the ATSB’s theory of the pilots being incapacitated and the aircraft crashing down rapidly is probably wrong, and more likely a rogue pilot flew the plane to the end and ditched it.
ATSB spokesman Paul Sadler referred inquiries on whether the bureau stuck to its “ghost flight” and “death dive” theory to the federal government’s Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre, whose spokesman referred them to the Malaysian government.
Reuters shipping data shows the Seabed Constructor’s next port of call is Perth on February 7.
The ships commissioned by the ATSB in the first search used a single tethered “tow-fish” or a single Autonomous Underwater Vehicle that can be programmed to conduct surveys independently, with sonar imaging.
Ocean Infinity will employ eight AUVs simultaneously.
The company’s technical director, Josh Broussard, told The Economist the new mission would be able to survey 1200sq km a day, meaning the whole search zone could be covered in three weeks.
MTF...P2