(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Transport authorities say they are "cautiously optimistic" a new underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will find the wreckage.
The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 has resumed after a four month hiatus.
Thea Cowie reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
The search area is about 1,800 kilometres west of Australia, covering roughly the size of Tasmania.
Three vessels are contracted to scour the area for up to a year.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's Martin Dolan says will be many challenges.
"The under sea terrain is very complex. There's mountains, ridges and a whole range of unexpected features which will put challenges in the way of the search and may mean we have to review the techniques that we're using for searching and adapt them."
One search vessel is the Perth-owned GO Phoenix, contracted by the Malaysian government.
It has begun 10 days of sonar surveys in the highest priority area.
The Dutch-owned Fugro Discovery, contracted by the Australian government, will be conducting similar scanning in a second area.
And a third vessel, the Fugro Equator, has finished mapping the area and is being re-equipped to begin searching later this month.
If something of interest is found using side scan sonar, the boats will tow video equipment and a device that can detect traces of jet fuel.
Martin Dolan says it's a big operation but he's hopeful it will yield results.
"The weather will remain a challenge from time to time although we're now moving into the Southern Hemisphere summer and the weather is generally better in those circumstances. We are covering an area that is unprecedented in its scale so we're in essentially unknown territory here. So they're the sorts of things that leave us cautious about the prospects for success but we remain optimistic that we will succeed."
While the search area remains large, it has been narrowed down significantly since the jet went missing.
239 passengers, including six Australians, were on board the Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight when it diverted from its destination.
Weeks later authorities were still unsure if the plane had headed north or south, and were searching an area twice the size of Africa.
Malaysian Transport Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein:
"Until we are certain that we have located MH370, search and rescue operations will continue in both corridors. I can confirm that Malaysia is sending 2 aircraft to Kazakhstan and the UK is planning to send one ship to the southern corridor."
But on the 25th of March Malaysia's Prime Minister, Najib Razak, announced new satellite data showed the plane had gone down in the Indian Ocean, west of Perth.
"This is a remote location far from any possible landing sites. It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."
Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Britain and China all began searching the ocean surface for debris.
Satellite image showed a number of floating objects in the area, but none were found to be wreckage
After two months, the aerial search for surface wreckage was called off.
Hopes had been raised in early April when a series of pings were detected in the southern Indian Ocean.
An underwater search for what was believed to be MH370's black box flight recorder was called off after two months analysis and an extensive underwater search.ÁÁ¦_vÂ
The current 60,000 square kilometre search zone was declared in June, and was calculated using new satellite communications data.
Analysis shows that before MH370 plunged into the ocean, it made seven electronic connections or "handshakes" with the ground station by way of a satellite.
No information was transmitted in the connections, but data about location, the possible height and direction of the aircraft was transmitted.
Mr Dolan says he's confident authorities are searching in the right area now.
"The data, although it was limited, has a number dimensions that you've actually got to understand very clearly - the effect of the ground station, the effect of the satellite, the effect of the equipment in the aircraft. So there was a considerable process of refining it and the models that we have to run the data through to get search areas are very sensitive to even small changes in the data and so it's quite a complex process and not one that gives you 100 per cent guarantee, just a high probability."
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