Phoenix International has been contracted by the Commonwealth of Australia to provide deepwater towed side scan sonar services in support of continuing the underwater search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370).
Phoenix and Hydrospheric Solutions (HSI) will conduct side scan sonar operations using the SLH PS-60 (ProSAS-60), a 6,000 meter depth-rated synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) towed system.
Team Phoenix will mobilize aboard the Chinese Rescue Salvage Bureau (RSB) vessel Dong Hai Jiu 101 in Singapore. Following a brief port call in Fremantle, Australia, Phoenix will start search operations in February 2016.
Previously Phoenix participated in the search for MH370 from April – June 2014 using their 5,000 meter depth-rated Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Artemis. The Phoenix/HSI team was subsequently contracted by Malaysia from October 2014 – June 2015, using HSI’s towed SAS system to perform a high resolution search of the seafloor in their assigned area.
Under a tripartite agreement involving the Governments of Australia, Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China, the MH370 search team, under the leadership of the ATSB, has searched more than 80,000 km2 of seafloor.
“We are deeply honored to be asked to rejoin the search for MH370. We fully understand and appreciate the magnitude of this effort and we look forward to assisting the ATSB in finding MH370 and bringing closure to those impacted by this tragic event,” said Mike Kutzleb , President of Phoenix.