TimelineConfirmed1 Oct 2014 00:00 UTCSearch 2014–2017
Bathymetry and underwater search begin
October 2014
Fugro vessels and partners begin wide-area bathymetric mapping and towed-sonar search of a defined 7th-arc corridor.
The official underwater search required first mapping a poorly charted abyssal plain, then searching it with towed side-scan and later AUV. Depths along the arc commonly exceed 3,000–5,000 m. The priority zone was refined several times as DSTG, Inmarsat, and ATSG (the ATSB search group) updated the end-of-flight dynamics and debris-drift inputs.
Sources
Related
OrganisationConfirmed
Australian Transport Safety Bureau
Lead of the 2014–2017 southern Indian Ocean search
DocumentOfficial finding1 Dec 2016 00:00 UTC
DSTG Bayesian flight-path analysis
Defence Science and Technology Group, Australia
LocationConfirmed
ATSB underwater search box 2014–2017
~120,000 km² · suspended 17 January 2017