Malaysia says it is still committed to MH370's search

Malaysia today said it remains committed to locating Flight MH370 and will hold a tripartie meeting with China and Australia to extend search operation for the ill-fated plane that went missing five months ago.
"After five months of searching for the missing plane, we would like to assure the next of kin of MH370 that our commitment to the search for this flight has remained consistent and has strengthened," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said.
Liow will be in Australia from August 19 to meet Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and relevant agencies and teams involved in the search for the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Liow said he will also attend ministerial-level tripartite meeting between China, Australia, and Malaysia that would be held during his visit there.
Beijing-bound Flight MH370 with 239 people, including five Indians, on board went missing on March 8 one after taking of from Kuala Lumpur.
An international search operation has so far failed to locate the plane believed to be crashed over the Indian ocean.

"To this end, Malaysia together with its international partners, Australia and China, announced that the contract to conduct a search of the southern Indian Ocean sea floor has been awarded to Fugro Survey Pty Ltd (Fugro) on August 6," Liow said.

He said that Fugro will utilise two vessels equipped with towed deep-water vehicles operated by experts who will undertake responsibility for the search operations.
The vessels will scan the sea floor utilising sophisticated side scan sonar, multi-beam echo sounders and video cameras with the hope of locating and identifying aircraft debris, he added.
The underwater search of the 60,000 square kilometre area is expected to take up a significant amount of time.
"Assets are already being mobilised with Fugro Discovery en route to Perth from the United Kingdom," the minister said.
He also said that Fugro Equator is currently compiling bathymetry data in the search area and will be the second search vessel to be mobilised once the bathymetry stage has been completed.