Searchers Will Concentrate On A Narrow, Long Arc In The Southern Indian Ocean

As spring comes to the southern hemisphere, the ATSB says that the search for MH370, a Boeing 777 that went missing in March of this year, has resumed in a long but narrow arc along the bottom of the southern Indian ocean. No trace of the aircraft has been located in the seven months following its loss.

Australia is leading the investigation at the request of the Malaysian government.

CNN reports that the search resumed Monday morning local time with the GO Phoenix research vessel arriving at the search area. The ship and two others will conduct detailed sonar sweeps of the ocean floor in an effort to locate the wreckage of the airplane.

The search could take as much as a year, according to the ATSB.

A detailed underwater topographical survey of the region where it is though the plane went down was recently completed, which revealed many features of the sea bottom for the first time, according to a statement from the ATSB, but the agency also said "the complexities surrounding the search cannot be understated. It involves vast areas of the Indian Ocean with only limited known data and aircraft flight information."

The GO Phoenix will be joined by two Dutch ships, the Fugro Discovery and the Fugro Equator, later in the month.

(Map provided by the ATSB)

FMI: www.atsb.gov.au/mh370.aspx