KUALA LUMPUR, June 4. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has issued an open tender for conducting an intensified deep-water search of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 beginning August this year.
The bureau in a statement said the specialist company would engage as a prime contractor under ATSB's direction for the search which is expected to take up to 12 months depending on weather conditions.
"The company will provide the expertise, equipment and vessel(s) necessary to undertake an intensified underwater search for the missing Boeing 777 aircraft in the defined zone in the southern Indian Ocean," it said.
ATSB said the successful tenderer would be expected to search an area up to 60,000 square kilometres based on the 'seventh handshake' arc where the aircraft last communicated with the Inmarsat satellite.
It added that the precise search zone was currently being established by an international search strategy working group and would be finalised within two to three weeks.
"The successful tenderer will localise, positively identify and map the debris field of MH370 using specialist equipment such as towed and autonomous underwater vehicles with mounted sonar and/or optical imaging systems."
The successful tenderer will use the data from a bathymetric survey, which was already underway, to navigate the search zone that has water depth between 1000 and 6000 metres, it said.
ATSB notified that the search vessel(s) used by the prime contractor may also be coordinated with other vessels also undertaking search activities in the search zone on behalf of other countries.
A copy of the request for tender is available on the AusTender website at www.tenders.gov.au. and submissions are due by 5.30pm AEST (3.30 pm Malaysia time) on 30 June 2014.
The statement also said at the request of the Malaysian Government, the ATSB is leading the search for missing MH370 flight. NEW STRAITS TIMES