UNDERSEA SEARCH FO MH370 COULD COST QUARTER BILLION DOLLORS

A prolonged undersea search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 could cost nearly a quarter of a billion U.S. dollars if private companies are used, Australia's top transport official said Thursday. 

Martin Dolan emphasized that the $234 million price tag is a "ballpark rough estimate" of an extended search and salvage mission that includes an underwater vehicle that has come up empty in its first four missions. 

The Bluefin-21 is back at work Friday morning on a fifth trip into the southern Indian Ocean. 

Authorities said the vessel has scanned a total of 110 square kilometers (42.5 square miles) without making any "contacts of interest." 

Searchers seem to be preparing for the possibility that an underwater drone scan of the southern Indian Ocean may not yield debris from the plane immediately. 

Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, tweeted Friday that authorities are looking at deploying more unmanned underwater probes. 

Officials might consider searching along a large portion of sea highlighted by a partial digital "handshake" between the jetliner and an Inmarsat PLC satellite, Dolan said. 

That arc of sea is over 370 miles long and 30 miles wide.

Source: CNN...More...