International and Australian aircrews involved in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370
International and Australian aircrews involved in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 prepare for an official photograph as they stand on the tarmac at the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Pierce Base in Bullsbrook, near Perth, April 29, 2014. The chance of finding floating debris from a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner has become highly unlikely, and a new phase of the search would focus on a far larger area of the Indian Ocean floor, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Monday. The international search effort for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, has so far failed to turn up any trace of wreckage from the plane. Given the amount of time that has elapsed, Abbott said that efforts would now shift away from the visual searches conducted by planes and ships and towards underwater equipment capable of scouring the ocean floor with sophisticated sensors. Reuters/Richard Polden

Come on October, the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will become more sophisticated with two specialist ships joining the underwater search of the missing plane. The ships--Fugro Discovery and the GO Phoenix will join with sonar and submersibles capabilities to scan 16,000 feet deep of the section in "the 7th arc," where the Boeing 777 is believed to crashed after running out of fuel.

High Probability

The location was earmarked on the basis of the jet's final satellite communication and the projected descent. The particular area is several hundred miles off Western Australia. Meanwhile, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau asserted that available information points to MH370 will be traceable in close proximity to the arc. The agency also claimed that the aircraft will not be more than 20 NM to the west or 30 NM to the east of the arc, reports USA Today.

The ATSB said last September 24 that further refinement of communications and flight data from MH370 would be used to determine the first areas to be scoured by the new ships that may extend south" of the previous priority zone.

Sonar Expert

To buttress the efforts, the team has hired a sonar specialist having experience in recovering Air France AF447 from the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, reported AFP. It was last March 8, MH370 disappeared in route to Beijing from Kaula Lampur with 239 people onboard. So far there is no trace of the Boeing despite conducting many massive searches.

The new search is based on technical data and diverted the hunt to southern Indian Ocean along the long arc from which the plane emitted the last satellite signal. For more precision, three-dimensional maps of the Ocean floor were prepared to focus effectively on a 350-nautical-mile-long stretch of seabed. Since the 3-D maps failed to reveal much of the airliner or parts of the jet on the ocean floor, it is hoped that the new topographical data by the sophisticated equipment make the search fool proof.

With the seafloor mapping already done, the Netherlands-owned Fugro Equator will also be returning to search area and begin the latest hunt in the coming days. Peter Foley, the Australian official coordinating the search, said he was "cautiously optimistic" that the jet would be found this time, despite many difficulties.