MH370 survey ships making progress

[SYDNEY] Two ships surveying the sea floor where Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is thought to have crashed are making steady progress with a deepwater search to get underway in September, Australian authorities said yesterday.

Since May, experts have been surveying an area of about 60,000 square kilometres along the seventh arc - a thin but long line that includes all possible points where the last known communication between the aircraft and a satellite could have taken place.

It is using two vessels - Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen and the Australian- contracted Fugro Equator - to map the ocean floor in the remote region, a process considered crucial to identify possible hazards that could affect the deepwater search.