The Australian Transportation Safety Bureau has released a request for tender (RFT) to acquire the services of a specialist company capable of conducting a deep-water search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
The successful tenderer will work under ATSB direction, and will provide expertise, equipment and any vessels necessary to conduct an underwater search of an area of up to 60,000 square kilometres for the missing Boeing 777 which is still believed to be in the southern Indian Ocean area WNW of Perth.
It is hoped the successful tenderer will be able to localise, positively identify, and map the 777’s debris field in water depths of between 1000 and 6000 metres using specialist equipment such as towed and autonomous underwater vehicles with mounted sonar and/or optical imaging systems, with the search scheduled to commence in August.
