The search for the missing plane, which has cost A$180 million so far, will go into next year.
This will come as good news for families of the victims. They were bracing themselves for the primary search, futile so far, to end by Christmas Day this year.
The Daily Beast quoted Communications Officer Daniel J T O’Malley, for the Operational Search for MH370, as confirming the second sweep.
“These targets are scattered throughout the greater search area,” said O’Malley. “They have been identified over the course of the underwater search.”
The second sweep, considered more important than the primary sweep, will begin even before the latter was completed by Christmas Day this year.
A remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) will be used “to investigate sonar contacts that have been judged warrant a closer look.”
The second sweep will begin in October, weather permitting, with a ROV operated by Phoenix International, a Maryland-based company in the US. The ROV will be used by Dong Hai Jiu 101, a Chinese search vessel currently in Fremantle, Australia.
The primary search used a torpedo-like sonar scanner, a towfish, to cover 110,000 sq km of the 120,000 sq km search zone.
It appears that pressure has been building up, for quite some time, for the second sweep. This followed Fugro, the Dutch vessel, reporting last June that there may be sonar gaps in its coverage of the ocean floor.
That needed further investigation.
More than 110,000 square kilometres of the seafloor have been searched so far.
Australia accepted responsibility for the search of the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 at the request of the Malaysian Government.
The ATSB is leading the underwater search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.
MH370 disappeared, with 239 people on board, on a routine flight on March 8, 2014 between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. Most of the passengers were from China. There were six Australian nationals and permanent residents on board the ill-fated aircraft.
It’s known that MH370 stopped short of Vietnam and turned back. It was tracked, by Malaysian military radar, flying across the Malay peninsula before being seen over Pulau Perak in the Straits of Malacca.
The aircraft made for the northern tip of Sumatra. Thereafter, the whereabouts of the aircraft remains a complete mystery.
Hourly pings – electronic handshakes – between the aircraft and a satellite indicate it made for the 7th Arc in the southern Indian Ocean, the current search zone.