MH370: Americans have 90 days to find wreckage

The American search team from the Ocean Infinity could reap up to $70 million for locating wreckage — or no fee at all if it cannot find the missing plane. But it has 90 days to deliver.

The Ocean Infinity-operated vessel Seabed Constructor is in transit to the search area and is expected to begin its search operations with its fleet of eight AUVs by January 17.

The team said they are ready to send the diving robots underwater to start the search.

Ocean Infinity will scan the area identified by the Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB) as the next most likely area for MH370, which was informed by the CSIRO’s sophisticated drift modelling — a vindication of the science and data informing the Australian-led portion of the search in the Indian Ocean, despite its controversial cancellation by the Malaysian government.

Finding wreckage the only option

The U.S. team on Ocean Infinity plans to begin its search for the missing aircraft in a 9,600-sq-mi area first.
If it does not find the debris field in that area, it will continue searching northeast along the so-called seventh arc, in the Indian Ocean off western Australia.

And this time, they say, it will do all it can to find the wreckage as its ‘Only option’ is to find missing plane.
The new search area is determined by the Australian Transportation Safety Board (ATSB).
The search will occur further north and wider than the two-year search of 46,300 sq mi that ended in January 2017.

Experts believe the aircraft likely ran out of fuel along that arc, where the last ‘handshake’ occurred between the airliner and an Inmarsat ground station in Perth, via its satellite over the Indian Ocean.
All other contact with MH370 had ceased hours earlier, said official reports.
But some family members of the victims believe the aircraft could be in another area, further from Australia and nearer to Mauritius.
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