Ocean Infinity, an American seabed exploration firm, is moving a vessel into position to conduct a private search for MH370. The Norweigian vessel, Seabed Constructor will be used. Seabed Constructor left Durban in South Africa 2 January 2018 and is expected in Perth Australia, 7 February 2018. Ocean Infinity expects to soon be awarded a contract to search for the missing airliner from the Malaysian government. A new search would be on a no-cure, no fee basis. This means there would be no payment to Ocean Infinity unless MH370 is found within 90 days of the start of the search.
News.com.au states Australia has commited to providing technical assistance with the search, but will provide no funds
The search will be done in a smaller, 25,000 sq km (9,000 sq miles), area north of where the ATSB led search was conducted. Seabed Constructor carries 6-8 HUGINS autonomous 6 metre long submarines that can search up to a depth of 6000 metres, 2000 metres deeper than the submersibles in the original search. Each submarines battery can last for 60 hours and will be replaced on board the ship by a pre-charged one before being sent back down.
MH370: Private company resumes search for missing plane https://t.co/Sj4ET9AHIr
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 3, 2018
A company spokesperson said:
“Ocean Infinity is hopeful of receiving the final contract award for the resumption of the search for MH370 over the coming days.
“With a relatively narrow weather window, we are moving the vessel, Seabed Constructor, towards the vicinity of the possible search zone.
“This is designed to save time should the contract award be forthcoming, as hoped.”