Ocean Infinity/2018
Ocean Infinity - Underwater Search for MH370
The following quotes contain the text of news items from the Ocean Infinity website:-
10/01/2018
Ocean Infinity to continue search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370
Ocean Infinity’s search will focus initially on the zone identified by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. The vessel, Seabed Constructor, is now close to the search area, which will enable work to commence imminently. The project is expected to last for 90 days.
Ocean Infinity will take on the economic risk of the renewed search, only receiving payment if the aircraft wreckage is located.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Ocean Infinity’s CEO, Oliver Plunkett said:
“We are pleased that our offer to continue the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 has been accepted by the Government of Malaysia, who I would like to thank for giving us the opportunity. Whilst there can be no guarantees of locating the aircraft, we believe our system of multiple autonomous vehicles working simultaneously is well suited to the task at hand. I wish our team the best of luck in their endeavors and sincerely hope that we will be able to play a part in providing some answers to the many people affected by this tragedy.”
Ocean Infinity can use up to eight Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), capable of operating in water depths from 5 meters to 6,000 meters. The AUVs are “free flying”, which means they will not be tethered to the offshore vessel during operations. The ability to operate untethered independent missions allows the AUVs to go deeper and collect higher quality data, making this technology ideal for the search.
The AUVs will be equipped with side scan sonar, multi-beam echosounder, sub-bottom profiler, HD camera, conductivity/temperature/depth sensor, self-compensating magnetometer, synthetic aperture sonar and a turbidity sensor.
Source: Ocean Infinity OIUS-10Jan2018
19/04/2018
Update on search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370
Seabed Constructor will shortly arrive in the Port of Fremantle for resupply and crew rotation. After a brief stop it will head straight back to site for a final phase before the weather limits Ocean Infinity’s ability to continue working this year.
Since operations commenced at the end of January 2018, the Ocean Infinity team has searched nearly 80,000 km², covering up to 1,300 km² per day.
Oliver Plunkett, Ocean Infinity’s CEO, said:
“As the team head in to port after another six weeks’ hard work, I am pleased to say our technology has performed exceptionally well throughout the search and that we have collected significant amounts of high quality data in which we have full confidence. The results from the highly challenging Broken Ridge feature are particularly impressive.
Whilst it’s disappointing there has been no sign of MH370 in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau search area and further north, there is still some search time remaining. Everyone at Ocean Infinity remains absolutely determined for the remainder of the search.”
Source: Ocean Infinity OIUS-19Apr2018
29/05/2018
Conclusion of current search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370
During the course of its operation, Ocean Infinity searched and collected high quality data from over 112,000 km2 of ocean floor successfully overcoming both challenging conditions and terrain. The total area covered, in a little over 3 months of operational days, is far in excess of the initial 25,000 km2 target and almost the same area as the previous search achieved in 2 ½ years.
Oliver Plunkett, Ocean Infinity’s CEO, said:
“I would firstly like to extend the thoughts of everyone at Ocean Infinity to the families of those who have lost loved ones on MH370. Part of our motivation for renewing the search was to try to provide some answers to those affected. It is therefore with a heavy heart that we end our current search without having achieved that aim.
We are most grateful to the Government of Malaysia for entertaining our offer and affording us the opportunity to recommence the search. The commitment that the new government in Malaysia has made to prioritising finding MH370 was very good to hear.
We want to thank the team onboard Seabed Constructor who have worked tirelessly and all the many companies, organizations and individuals whose support, guidance and advice were invaluable. The staff at the ATSB whose dedication to finding the plane has been unwavering deserve our particular gratitude.
Whilst clearly the outcome so far is extremely disappointing, as a company, we are truly proud of what we have achieved both in terms of the quality of data we’ve produced and the speed with which we covered such a vast area. There simply has not been a subsea search on this scale carried out as efficiently or as effectively ever before.
We sincerely hope that we will be able to again offer our services in the search for MH370 in future.”
Source: Ocean Infinity OIUS-29May2018