A Chinese ship equipped with advanced sonar equipment is soon to join the search for the Malaysian airliner believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean almost two years ago, an official said yesterday.
The Dong Hai Jiu 101 is to depart Singapore tomorrow to join the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 over a 120,000km2 expanse of deep seabed by late next month, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said.
The ship is equipped with a state-of-the-art synthetic aperture sonar (SAS), which some experts say is more accurate than standard 75 kilohertz side-scan sonar systems that have been used to scan most of the area searched so far.
With standard acoustic sonar, the image becomes less clear the farther a seabed object is from the equipment.
However, with SAS, the image remains sharp regardless of an object’s distance.
Fugro Survey, the Dutch underwater survey company hired by Australia to find the Boeing 777, has defended its choice of sonar and maintains the search has been thorough.
Fugro search director Paul Kennedy has described SAS as a developing technology with some questions about its reliability. As the search was in such a remote region, Fugro opted for established technology with ready supplies of spare parts.
ONGOING EXPEDITION
The Dong Hai Jiu 101 is to join two Fugro ships, Fugro Discovery and Fugro Equator, which are to continue to search with standard sonar equipment.
The Fugro Discovery lost its sonar unit and 4.5km of cable last weekend when the ship towed the equipment into an underwater volcano.
The ship was headed back to the Australian port of Fremantle to collect new cable to deploy with a spare sonar unit.
A fourth ship, Havila Harmony, is equipped with a maneuverable deep-sea drone that has been fitted with a camera and high-resolution sonar for searching difficult terrain and for taking a closer look at potential clues.
The drone was also recently damaged when it struck a fishing net, but has been repaired.
The ProSAS-60 sonar equipment aboard the Chinese ship is to be operated by marine services companies Phoenix International Holdings, based in Maryland, and Seattle-based Hydrospheric Solutions.
Both companies gained experience searching for Flight MH370 when they operated Go Phoenix, a ship that was contracted by Malaysia to take part in the search for eight months until June last year.
More than 85,000km2 of the search area have been scoured since late 2014.
The Chinese ship’s participation marks the first time China has agreed to share the financial cost of the search with Malaysia and Australia.
Truss yesterday thanked China for the contribution.
Most of the 239 people aboard Flight MH370 were Chinese.
The airplane vanished on March 8, 2014, after mysteriously flying far off course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
A wing component found in July last year on the other side of the Indian Ocean when it washed up on Reunion Island is the only verified debris to have been recovered.
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
IN THE AIR: With no compromise on the budget in sight, more air traffic controllers are calling in sick, which has led to an estimated 13,000 flight delays, the FAA said Concerns over flight delays and missed paychecks due to the US government shutdown escalated on Wednesday, as senators rejected yet another bid to end the standoff. Democrats voted for a sixth time to block a Republican stopgap funding measure to reopen government departments, keeping much of the federal workforce home or working without pay. With the shutdown in its eighth day, lines at airports were expected to grow amid increased absenteeism among security and safety staff at some of the country’s busiest hubs. Air traffic controllers — seen as “essential” public servants — are kept at work during government shutdowns, but higher numbers
Elvis Nghobo tried to get into four different professional schools in Cameroon, but could not make it. Frustrated, the 34-year-old turned to selling food at a market in Yaounde, the country’s seat of power. Nghobo blames his woes on what he calls a corrupt education system that favors children of the elite. As the central African country prepares for Sunday’s presidential election, he said he would not be heading out to vote. He called the results a foregone conclusion for 92-year-old Paul Biya, the world’s oldest president, who has ruled for Nghobo’s entire life. “He is already too old to govern, and it’s boring
RSS