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...
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