page_title: Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
section_title: Seafloor sonar survey
hierarchical_section_title: Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 / Shift to the Southern Indian Ocean (March–May 2014) / Seafloor sonar survey
caption_attribution_description: English: INDIAN OCEAN (April 14, 2014) Operators aboard Australian navy vessel Ocean Shield move the U.S. Navy’s Bluefin 21 Artemis autonomous underwater vehicle into position for deployment. Using side scan sonar, the Bluefin will descend to a depth of between 4,000 and 4,500 meters, approximately 35 meters above the ocean floor. Joint Task Force 658 is currently supporting Operation Southern Indian Ocean, searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Peter D. Blair/Released) Virin: 140414-N-OV358-042
context_page_description: The disappearance on 8 March 2014 of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a scheduled international passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport, prompted a large, multinational search in Asia and the southern Indian Ocean that became the most expensive search in aviation history. Analysis of communications between the aircraft and Inmarsat by multiple agencies has concluded that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean.
  An analysis of possible flight paths was conducted, identifying a 60,000 km² primary search-area, approximately 2,000 km west of Perth, Western Australia, which takes six days for vessels to reach from Fremantle Harbour, near Perth. The underwater search of this area began on 5 October 2014 at a cost of A$60 million. With no significant delays, the search of the priority search-area was to be completed around May 2015. On 29 July 2015, a piece of marine debris, later confirmed to be a flaperon from Flight 370, was found on Réunion Island.
context_section_description: On 14 April, due to the likelihood of the ULBs' acoustic pulses having ceased because their batteries would have run down, the Towed Pinger Locator search gave way to a seabed search using side-scan sonar installed in a Bluefin-21 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. The first day's search was aborted because the sea bed was considerably deeper than the maximum operating depth of Bluefin. Scanning subsequently resumed and after covering 42 square miles in its first four dives, the submersible was reprogrammed to allow it to dive 604 feet lower than its operational limit of 14,800 feet, when the risk of damage was assessed as "acceptable".
  Bluefin-21 required 16 missions to complete its search of the 314 square kilometre area around the detections made by the Towed Pinger Locator. The seafloor sonar search was suspended on 2 May for the AVD Ocean Shield to return to port to replenish supplies and personnel. Within two hours of its first deployment after returning to the search area on 13 May, Bluefin-21 developed a communications problem and was recovered. Spare parts from the UK were required and the AVD Ocean Shield returned to port to collect the parts. After Bluefin-21 was repaired, the seafloor sonar survey resumed on 22 May.
  The seafloor sonar survey was completed on 28 May. After 30 deployments of the Bluefin-21 to depths of 3,000–5,000 m (9,800–16,400 ft), which scanned 860 km² (330 sq mi) of seabed, no objects associated with Flight 370 were found. The following day, after analysis of data from the last mission, the ATSB announced the search in the vicinity of the acoustic detections was complete and the area could be discounted as the final location of Flight 370. The announcement followed a statement by U.S. Navy's Deputy Director of Ocean Engineering that all four pings were no longer believed to have come from the aircraft's flight recorders. Truss informed parliament that, beginning in August, after a new commercial operator for the search effort had been selected, the search would move into a new phase "that could take twelve months". Equipment envisaged to be used would include towed side-scan sonar.
caption: Ocean Shield deploys Bluefin-21, 14 April 2014.
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