M’sia vows to continue 2nd phase of MH370 search

comments     Bernama     Published     Updated

Malaysia remains committed to continue the second phase search of the missing flight MH370 with only two ships scouring the remote area of the Indian ocean.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the second phase of the search would involve an additional area of 60,000 square kilometres.

He said the current first phase search area was 60,000 square kilometres, where three ships, namely Fugro Equator, Fugro Discovery and GO Pheonix were involved in the deep-sea operation.

“The contract with GO Phoenix will end with the fulfilment of their contractual obligation for the first phase of the search efforts,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Thus, both ships, Fugro Equator and Fugro Discovery , would be deployed for the second phase search after the current search was completed.

To date, more than 52,000 square kilometres of the search area had been completed, said Liow.

He said the commitment for the search was made after the recent Ministerial Tripartite meeting, involving Malaysia, Autralia and China, and based on the international experts’ advice from the Search Strategy Working Group.

The Malaysia Airlines flight was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it disappeared from radar screens while heading to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in the morning of the March 8, last year.

- Bernama



Malaysiakini
news and views that matter


Sign In