Ocean Infinity Not Giving Up MH370 Search

Ocean Infinity's “no cure, no pay” contract is up, but the company has not abandoned its search for the missing aircraft MH370.

The contract with Malaysia ended last Tuesday, but the company's vessel Seabed Constructor is reported to have moved to a new search area at a latitude of 25 degrees South and 101 degrees East where the Chinese navy ship Haixun 01 detected a suspected black box “ping” less than a month after the plane disappeared on March 8, 2014 during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. 

There were no confirmed transmissions received from the aircraft after the first 38 minutes of the flight. Subsequent analysis of radar and satellite communication data revealed the aircraft had actually continued to fly for a further seven hours. Its last position was positively fixed at the northern tip of Sumatra by the surveillance systems operating that night, six hours before it ended the flight in the southern Indian Ocean.

Re-analysis of satellite imagery taken on March 23, 2014 has identified a range of objects which may be MH370 debris. This analysis identified an area of less than 25,000 square kilometers which has the highest likelihood of containing MH370. This formed the basis of Ocean Infinity's search plan.

Two sources close to the search have told news.com.au that Seabed Constructor will soon head to Australia to undertake a commercial job but may then return to the Indian Ocean continue the search late this year.

Since operations commenced at the end of January 2018, the Ocean Infinity team has searched up to 1,300 square kilometers per day covering over 125,000 square kilometers of seabed.