The MH370 search area is identified as 120,000 km2 wide in the southern Indian Ocean after the flight carrying 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers went missing on March 8, 2014.
It's a giant circle" - Simon Maskell, professor of autonomous systems at Liverpool University, former science advisor to Ocean Infinity, said.
Many debris have been found around the Indian Ocean coast and have been identified as belonging to MH370. No human remains have been found, but all people on flight MH370 are believed to have died.
Ocean Infinity is a company of marine robots and seabed surveys, based in the UK and the US, "with achievements in finding hard-to-find things at the bottom of the ocean," said Maskell.
In 2018, Ocean Infinity unsuccessfully searched for MH370 in an area of over 80,000 km2.
The company has a fleet of underwater self-propelled vehicles (AUVs) Hugin 6000, capable of creating 3D ocean depth maps at depths of up to 6,000m using sonar, laser, optical and reverberation sound technology, each machine estimated to be worth at least 8 million USD. AUVs can operate underwater for 100 hours before running out of battery.
Ocean Infinity began searching for the 15,000 km2 priority area in February, but temporarily suspended the search in April after 22 days of deployment due to bad weather conditions. The search resumed on December 30 and will last 55 days.
Mr. Richard Godfrey - an independent aviation investigator - estimates that the company has searched nearly 10,000 km2 and is planning to search for another 25,000 km2, after spending "tens of millions of USD" on ships and equipment.
I don't think they are doing this for the cash reward of 70 million USD, because this search is very, very expensive. I think they are doing this because of their achievements and the ability to promote themselves as the best underwater search company in the world for finding MH370" - he said.
The ocean floor is a very complex environment to navigate. There are giant mountains, mountain ranges and deep abysses while you have to search everywhere" - Mr. Maskell pointed out.
In the Indian Ocean, there are canyons more than 300m deep, steep cliffs thousands of meters above the seabed and active volcanoes that need to be guarded against, Godfrey said.
Although the area that Ocean Infinity is looking for has been surveyed before, it is suggested that the data may not be complete.
This is not an easy place to search. One of the biggest challenges Ocean Infinity faces is the risk of being very close to the MH370 wreckage but still missing it due to difficult terrain or shortcomings in survey data" - Mr. Godfrey said.
The former advisor to Ocean Infinity said that the biggest challenge of this MH370 search is deciding where to find it. "You may own the world's greatest technology, but if you search the wrong place, it will not help you" - Mr. Maskell said.
