PERTH: MALAYSIA is optimistic that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 plane will be found in the new phase of underwater search.
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said with the most sophisticated of search tools being used to search a freshly refined area, it was only a matter of time before the Boeing 777-200ER was found.
“If the area we are looking for has been determined, from the advice we have received, we are 99.9 per cent optimistic (that the plane will be found).
“Based on the technology available and that we are looking at the right place, we are that much optimistic. The technical committee will also continue to zoom into the areas of search. Malaysia remains committed to finding the plane and we will find it,” he said after officiating the participation of the Go Phoenix vessel and the Prosas Side Scan Sonar in the search operation for MH370.
The sonar will be mounted on Go Phoenix and can search up to a depth of 6,000m, covering up to 194 sq km, including blind spots, daily. The mission is funded by Petronas.
Experts said the search area was roughly half the size of Australia.
In his speech at the launch, Hishammuddin said the authorities had exhausted all efforts to find the plane thus far.
“Specialised committees have been set into place, expert groups have been formed and assets mobilised. MH370 will not be forgotten and the work, thus far, will not have been in vain and we, by the grace of Allah, will one day get to the bottom of this tragedy.”
“We cannot give up hope… we must continue to hope for sometimes hope is all we have.. We will find MH370.”
Meanwhile, Petronas Malaysia Petroleum Management vice president Adif Zulkifli said the firm’s contribution to the search was part of its corporate social responsibility.
“The RM67 million contribution is for the Go Phoenix search vessel and use of the sonar.”
Kuala Lumpur also co-shares with Canberra a Malaysia-Australia contracted vessel by Fugro Survey Pty Ltd to search for the aircraft.
Present at the launch were Communications and Multimedia Deputy Minister Datuk Jailani Johari, Petronas president and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Shamsul Azhar Abbas and DRB-HICOM group managing director Tan Sri Mohd Khamil Jamil.
The Beijing-bound flight MH370 with 227 passengers and 12 crew members disappeared from radar screens about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41am on March 8.
On flight MH17 that was shot down in Ukraine, Hishammuddin said personal feelings had to be put aside in the pursuit of investigations, including re-entering the crash site under volatile conditions.
“We do not want to risk the lives of the security forces at a place where war is going on. We do not want to complicate things with finger-pointing. We are leaving it to the criminal investigation team (to find the culprits) and we will find justice. (As to) how we find that justice, (it) must be detached from any geopolitical considerations,” he said.
Of the 44 Malaysians who perished in the July 17, MH17 tragedy, only the remains of Puan Sri Siti Amirah Kusuma, 83, have not been found. She was Hishammuddin’s step-grandmother.