MOSCOW, August 6 (RIA Novosti) - Australian government has announced that the Dutch contractor Fugro Survey Pty Ltd will be conducting the underwater search for the Malaysian Boeing 777 that disappeared in March, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, the Dutch company will use two vessels towing the underwater vehicles equipped with side-scan sonar, multi-beam echo sounders and video equipment for search.
"I remain cautiously optimistic that we will locate the missing aircraft within the priority search area," said the Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, as quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald.
The search is expected to start in the beginning of September and last for a year, examining 60, 000 kilometers of the bottom of Indian Ocean.
According to Truss, the cost of a 12-month search could amount to $52 million but significantly less if the plane is found earlier.
The Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777-200 flight MH370 going from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared on March 8 with 239 people aboard including six Australians. On March 24 the Malaysian Prime Minister said that according to the satellite data, MH370 crashed in southern part of the Indian Ocean.
