#PrayForMH370 : Abyss submarines ready to help in search for #MH370, says report

Three deep-sea search submarines – known as the "Abyss" – are set to join in the hunt for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.





The Telegraph reported that the submarines can dive down to depths of 6,000m and stay under water for up to 24 hours.

Scientists at the Helmholtz Oceanography Institute in the German port city of Kiel had arranged with their counterparts at the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Institute to send the three unmanned submarines, the report said.

"We have already agreed to launch a joint search with our American colleagues," Peter Herzig, the director of the Helmholtz Institute, was quoted as saying by Der Spiegel magazine.

"With sonar from three submarines, we will be able to search a much bigger area."

The institute owns one of the €1.5 million (RM5.7 million) Abyss submarines, which measure about 3.7m in length, which is used for oceanographic research while Woods Hole owns the other two.

In 2011, the three submarines tracked down the wreckage of the Air France flight 447, which had crashed over the Atlantic two years before that with 228 passengers on board.

Herzig said the batteries on its "Abyss" had just been renewed and was now now examining the submarine's engines and sensors in preparation for the deployment.

The German said all they were waiting now was for the wreckage of the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft to be sighted.

"If we can manage to narrow down the search area, I am optimistic about being able to find the wreck of the plane on the seabed," Herzig said.

The daily reported that the Abyss was equipped with special sensors, cameras and an ultra-sensitive sonar system.

It looks like a torpedo and is painted yellow to make it identifiable. The submarine can be flown in for search efforts as it is small in size.

The search for the Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO) is the longest in modern passenger-airline history.

The previous record was the 10-day search for a Boeing 737-400 operated by Indonesia’s PT Adam Skyconnection Airlines, which went missing off the coast of that country’s Sulawesi island on January 1, 2007. – March 24, 2014.