Phoenix Continues Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Ocean News
Phoenix International Holdings, Inc. (Phoenix) is under contract to DRB-HICOM Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd (DEFTECH) on behalf of the Government of Malaysia to search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370) in the Southern Indian Ocean, approximately 1,500 miles west of Perth, Australia. Working aboard the GO Phoenix, a DP2 offshore operations vessel owned by GO Marine Group PTY, LTD, Phoenix and Hydrospheric Solutions, LLC (Hydrospheric) conducted seafloor search operations from 5 – 16 October using the ProSAS-60 synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) system. The ProSAS-60 is a 6,000 m depth rated system owned and operated by Hydrospheric. During this 11 day search period, Phoenix and Hydrospheric personnel used the ProSAS-60 to successfully search over 1,405 square kilometers (542 square miles) of seafloor at water depths averaging 4,100 msw.
Following this search period, GO Phoenix transited to Fremantle, Western Australia, for provisioning, arriving on 21 October. Datuk Seri Hishammuddin bin Tun Hussein, the Malaysian Minister of Defence, visited the GO Phoenix while the ship was in Fremantle. During a ceremonial event onboard GO Phoenix the Minister of Defence stated "never in the history of mankind has there been a more complex search than the search for MH370." Mike Kutzleb, President of Phoenix was also present at the event, and stated "the quality of the data that we're getting from this sonar is very high. That gives us a high degree of confidence that if we go over the aircraft debris field while we're out there, we will be able to detect it." The Group Managing Director of DEFTECH, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Haji Mohd Khamil bin Jamil, and Chief Executive Officer of DEFTECH, Mr. Amril Samsudin, were there to witness the event.
GO Phoenix departed Fremantle on 27 October and resumed search operations in early November.
