Australian authorities have announced that the search for missing Malaysian passenger aircraft MH370 will continue throughout Christmas and New Year, with the aim of completing the priority area by May 2015.
However, search operations have again been hampered by technical problems, with two of the three vessels heading back to Fremantle.
In its weekly update on the mission, Australian authorities reported the Fugro Equator was leaving for Fremantle after completing further bathymetric work. The vessel has been extending its survey work while awaiting parts enabling it to be refitted to join the underwater search.
Meanwhile, the Fugro Discovery has also left the search while rectifying a system issue.
The vessel "experienced a system issue with a component of the search equipment", authorities reported. "Search activities have been suspended while the issue is remedied."
Meanwhile GO Phoenix is continuing underwater search operations in the priority area, which mainly follows the less extreme depths from Zenith Plateau west of Exmouth down along the Batavia Seamount and across Broken Ridge west of Fremantle, then further southwest of the Australian continent towards the Southern Ocean.
These regions are mostly less than 3,500-m deep aside from a canyon along Broken Ridge. However, the search area also extends further northwest of Dampier and major shipping routes around 6,000-m deep.
Geoscience Australia has published a sample of the bathymetric survey mapping of the seabed in the search area on Youtube, showing canyons and ridges of the seabed.
Source IHS
Topic: MH370 search could be completed by May 2015 (Read 1072 times)