The next phase of the search for the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 has begun using a highly-advanced sonar mapping technology called GO Phoenix.  The Australian government, in conjunction with Malaysian authorities, started sweeping Southern Indian Ocean near the so-called "seventh arc" in hopes to find debris of the plane.

Like Us on Facebook

Tim Farrar, a California-based satellite industry consultant, corroborated investigators' hunch that the Boeing 777 might have crashed further south in the Indian Ocean in areas regarded as "lower priority".

Search teams are hopeful to discover traces of the MH370 plane. However, the actual operation is projected to take one full year considering stronger underwater current possibly pushing its remnants into different areas.

Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, added that another ship, Fugro Discovery, is also joining the hunt.  The vessel is docked on Fremantle Port, Western Australia on Sunday and is expected to arrive in the search area on October 17.

Also, the Fugro Equator ship is currently completing its bathymetric survey of the ocean floor before fitting in GO Phoenix together with Fugro NV.  Dolan said that the three mentioned ships will be towing at least 100 meters above the seabed encompassing deep crevasses and underwater mountains.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared from radar around 1:30 a.m. on March 8 en route to Beijing, China from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.  Two hundred thirty nine individuals including passengers and plane crew are still missing to date.

A number of speculations were given defining the motives of the crash including pilot's suicide, mechanical error, and loss of fuel.  Families of the victims request authorities to provide raw results of analysis to aid independent investigations on what is considered to be the most mysterious case in aviation history.

TagsMH370 Search, Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370