Der Spiegel reported that German and American oceanographers have agreed to launch a joint-search using the three unmanned “Abyss”-type deep sea search submarines, once the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines-owned Boeing 777-200 is sighted.
‘With sonar from three submarines we will be able to search a much bigger area,” said Peter Herzig, the director of the Helmholthz Insitute, in an article translated by The Telegraph.
The Helmholthz Institute owns one of the submarines, valued at RM6.84 million each. The two other vessels are owned by Woods Hole Institute based out of Massachusetts in the US.
The submarines, equipped with special sensors, cameras and an ultra-sensitive sonar system, can dive to depths of 6,000 metres and stay submerged for up to 24 hours.
Measuring 12 feet, the craft’s relatively small size also allows for it to be flown in for deployment, according to the article.
Herzig said the German team had just renewed the batteries on their “Abyss” and were checking their submarine’s engines and sensors for swift deployment.
“If we can manage to narrow down the search area, I am optimistic about being able to find the wreck of the plane on the sea bed,” Herzig told Der Spiegel.
The three submarines were instrumental in locating the wreckage of Air France flight 477, which disappeared after it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.
It was two years and four underwater searches later when a team manning autonomous underwater vehicles found substantial remains of the aircraft and more passengers at depths of between 3,800m and 4,000m in the Atlantic on April 3, 2011.
A total of 104 bodies — along with the plane’s black box — were recovered from the deep-sea wreckage, adding to the 50 bodies recovered in the initial search and rescue operation.
The operation was officially closed with 74 bodies still unrecovered.
