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| Rugged Seabed Seen in New Maps Complicates Search for Jet | |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| SYDNEY, Australia — As searchers began a deep-sea hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Monday, three-dimensional maps — the first produced of the remote region off the western Australian coast where the missing plane is thought to have run out of fuel — pointed to the huge scale of the task ahead. | SYDNEY, Australia — As searchers began a deep-sea hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Monday, three-dimensional maps — the first produced of the remote region off the western Australian coast where the missing plane is thought to have run out of fuel — pointed to the huge scale of the task ahead. |
| The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement on Monday that one of the vessels involved, GO Phoenix, had arrived within the search zone in the southern Indian Ocean and was likely to stay 12 days before needing to refuel. | The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement on Monday that one of the vessels involved, GO Phoenix, had arrived within the search zone in the southern Indian Ocean and was likely to stay 12 days before needing to refuel. |
| Two other ships — the Fugro Discovery and the Fugro Equator — will also join the search, which is concentrated along a long, thin arc that is thought to have been the plane’s flight path on March 8 before it disappeared. | Two other ships — the Fugro Discovery and the Fugro Equator — will also join the search, which is concentrated along a long, thin arc that is thought to have been the plane’s flight path on March 8 before it disappeared. |
| Newly produced maps show that the area’s waters, beneath which are volcanoes, crevasses, plateaus and ridges, may be more than three and a half miles deep in places. | Newly produced maps show that the area’s waters, beneath which are volcanoes, crevasses, plateaus and ridges, may be more than three and a half miles deep in places. |
| “It is rugged underwater terrain, a long way down,” said Alec Duncan, a senior lecturer at the Center for Marine Science and Technology at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. “It makes the next phase of the search much harder.” | “It is rugged underwater terrain, a long way down,” said Alec Duncan, a senior lecturer at the Center for Marine Science and Technology at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. “It makes the next phase of the search much harder.” |
| The airliner had been traveling on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board but inexplicably turned off course and headed south. No debris has been found. | The airliner had been traveling on an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board but inexplicably turned off course and headed south. No debris has been found. |
| Transmissions from Flight 370, known as electronic handshakes, and an unsuccessful satellite phone call between Malaysia Airlines ground staff and the jet have allowed the Australian authorities leading the search to chart a narrow trajectory that the plane probably traveled. | Transmissions from Flight 370, known as electronic handshakes, and an unsuccessful satellite phone call between Malaysia Airlines ground staff and the jet have allowed the Australian authorities leading the search to chart a narrow trajectory that the plane probably traveled. |
| “The complexities surrounding the search cannot be understated,” the Transport Safety Bureau said in a recent search update. “It involves vast areas of the Indian Ocean with only limited known data and aircraft flight information.” | “The complexities surrounding the search cannot be understated,” the Transport Safety Bureau said in a recent search update. “It involves vast areas of the Indian Ocean with only limited known data and aircraft flight information.” |
| But officials have said they remain cautiously optimistic that they will find the jet. They hope the next phase of the search, using side-scan sonar, synthetic aperture sonar, multibeam echo sounders and video cameras, will detect the plane’s wreckage on the seafloor. | But officials have said they remain cautiously optimistic that they will find the jet. They hope the next phase of the search, using side-scan sonar, synthetic aperture sonar, multibeam echo sounders and video cameras, will detect the plane’s wreckage on the seafloor. |
| The first phase of the search, an air and water-surface search that involved hundreds of surveillance flights covering about 1.7 million square miles, lasted 52 days. Searchers then used towed and autonomous listening devices in the hope of detecting “pings” from the plane’s data recorders. But no signals were detected, and no wreckage found. | The first phase of the search, an air and water-surface search that involved hundreds of surveillance flights covering about 1.7 million square miles, lasted 52 days. Searchers then used towed and autonomous listening devices in the hope of detecting “pings” from the plane’s data recorders. But no signals were detected, and no wreckage found. |
| Bathymetric surveys of the area’s ocean floor use a rainbow of colors to depict how the seabed rises from a golden-hued plateau on the northern edge of the Broken Ridge — an underwater volcanic plateau — and then drops into a ravine that could be more than four miles deep. | Bathymetric surveys of the area’s ocean floor use a rainbow of colors to depict how the seabed rises from a golden-hued plateau on the northern edge of the Broken Ridge — an underwater volcanic plateau — and then drops into a ravine that could be more than four miles deep. |
| The new phase of the search involves towing sonar equipment that can detect wreckage miles underwater, but that search will be slow given the terrain. Some of the sonar operates best when towed around 650 feet from the seafloor. “And it may be towed on cable six miles long out the back of a vessel,” Dr Duncan said. “You can’t be flying blind using that sort of equipment. That’s where the detailed maps come in.” | The new phase of the search involves towing sonar equipment that can detect wreckage miles underwater, but that search will be slow given the terrain. Some of the sonar operates best when towed around 650 feet from the seafloor. “And it may be towed on cable six miles long out the back of a vessel,” Dr Duncan said. “You can’t be flying blind using that sort of equipment. That’s where the detailed maps come in.” |
| Dr. Duncan said an enormous amount of effort had gone into refining “what is essentially scant data in the plane’s last flying hours.” | Dr. Duncan said an enormous amount of effort had gone into refining “what is essentially scant data in the plane’s last flying hours.” |
| “There are uncertainties associated with that,” he said. “They are searching the area of highest probability. And if it is there, they will find it.” | “There are uncertainties associated with that,” he said. “They are searching the area of highest probability. And if it is there, they will find it.” |