Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: The Year in Review 1:04
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MH370 dropped off the radar an hour into flight. At the end of 2014, the families of the victims still have no answers. WSJ's Jason Bellini reports.
- WSJ Live
- 20 Dec 2014
- News/World
IN what can only be described as an optimistic move, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has called for expressions of interest in carrying out the recovery operation for MH370.
Nearly four months into the underwater search for the missing aircraft nothing has been found in the southern Indian Ocean.
But the ATSB wants to be prepared to recover any wreckage, in the knowledge it will be a technically challenging and expensive operation.
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In a statement issued today, the ATSB said preliminary tenders would allow it to assess which organisations would be able to supply the equipment and expertise required.
The deadline for Expressions of Interest is February 18 with a final decision on any recovery operation to be made jointly by the Australian, Malaysian and Chinese Governments.
Still searching ... recovery efforts have failed to find MH370. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied
To date, just over a quarter of the 60,000 square kilometre priority search area has been scanned without success.
Depths range from around 600m to 6000m, considered to be at the limit of existing technological capabilities for search and recovery operations.
The search operation is based on a series of satellite handshakes with the Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777 after all communication with the aircraft was lost en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.
A South Korean P3 Orion aircraft was used in previous attempts to locate missing Malaysia Airlines flight. Picture: Greg Pool/Getty Images Source: Supplied
It’s last known position was between Malaysia and Vietnam, and initial search operations were focused in the South China Sea.
Theories as to what happened to the aircraft range from hijacking to alien abduction.
Officials have refused to speculate on the events that led to the disappearance, remaining focused on locating the Boeing 777 and its black box flight data recorder.
Of the 239 passengers and crew on board, six were Australians.
Australia and Malaysia have jointly funded the underwater search effort, at a cost of around $60 million.
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