A lone ship, looking for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, began its search operation on Monday night after it left Fremantle port in Australia. This could be the final search for the aircraft that went missing on March 8, 2014. Officials said they will suspend the search operation if the Dutch-owned Fugro Equator fails to find the plane by early 2017, reported BBC. However, Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester told AP that the final decision on the ship’s search will depend on the weather.
Fugro Equator is equipped with a maneuverable drone, known as an autonomous underwater vehicle, which can collect sonar images of difficult terrain, according to AP. Earlier this month, a Chinese ship completed its search operation and is now on its way back to Shanghai.
Teams from different countries have been looking for the Boeing 777 in a 1.2 lakh sqkm area of the Indian Ocean for more than two years now. In July, ministers from Australia, Malaysia and China had reportedly met in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the future of the search operation. After the meeting, the Malaysian government had announced that the search for the missing MH370 flight will be suspended if nothing was found in the current search area.
Different teams formed to locate the aircraft have not been able to find any piece of wreckage that could confirm the whereabouts of the plane, which went missing with 239 people on board en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. Approximately $137 million (Rs 912 crore) has been spent on the search till now, making it the most expensive hunt in aviation history. “We have to prepare ourselves for the prospect that we may not find MH370 in the coming weeks, but we have to be hopeful,” Transport Minister Chester told The West Australian.
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