KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — The private contractor hired to locate the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be given a 300-day deadline to complete an underwater search spanning an area that is almost half the size of peninsular Malaysia in the southern Indian Ocean, Australian authorities said today.
US paper the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday details of the tender documents released by the Australian government for the new phase of the search for the Boeing 777 jet, which also highlighted uncertainty about the operation, such as the seabed terrain and even the area to be examined with high-tech sonar equipment.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) reportedly said that it still has yet to fix an exact search area because satellite communications and calculations on the jetliner’s likely performance are still being analysed.
WSJ also reported that searchers will be given full payment, whether or not the commercial plane is found, as long as they fully scan the search area with sonar equipment.
Australian authorities have said that a maximum of A$60 million (RM180 million) will be allocated for the search, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The winning contractor will have several deadlines to scour an area of 60,000 square kilometres - or almost half the size of peninsular Malaysia - as Australian authorities revisit the search for wreckage of the plane after saying last week that no wreckage has been found in a targeted zone in the southern Indian Ocean.
Global experts reportedly have 26 days to come up with a plan to search the area, including locating crew and equipment.
The winning organisation or company is then required to mobilise a team and equipment from around the world within a month of signing the contract.
Once the search starts, the private contractor must map 5,000 square kilometres of seabed every 25 days, or payments may be withheld.
The company’s sonar equipment must have the ability to withstand water depths of 6,000 metres, even as the bidders will be asked to explain how their devices will navigate “holes, trenches, ridges, steep gradients” and a sea floor that could comprise “silt, sand, rock, and possibly manganese nodules”.
WSJ further reported that ATSB will have the right to decide which ocean search areas to be prioritised, rather than leave it up to the private contractor.
The winning contractor will be prohibited from divulging confidential information obtained from Australian authorities and from making public statements.
The ongoing search for flight MH370 is considered the longest and most expensive in the world’s aviation history, with Reuters estimating costs to have hit RM141 million for the first month alone.
The Boeing 777 jet, which was carrying 239 people on board, disappeared on March 8 after the plane veered from its Beijing-bound flight path and flew in the opposite direction towards the southern Indian Ocean.
