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Hishammuddin says search for MH370 in next two days ‘critical’

All efforts related to the underwater search of MH370 will be intensified in the next few days, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today, adding that search operations for the missing jetliner has entered a critical juncture.

“The JACC has narrowed the search area and it’s imperative that we focus on this now,” Hishammuddin (pic, left) said at a press conference.

“Today and tomorrow are imperative to narrow down the search grid and regroup including looking at the existing data again.

“We may need to review the satellite data provided by Inmarsat,” he said.

"Whatever the outcome of the search, we will decide on whether we need to regroup and re approach on the data and method used."

Hishammuddin added that search area may have to be widened if the drone did not find any sign of a wreckage, and that the next phase in the search and rescue operations will be known by Monday.

He also said that the government had identified two companies to help in the deep water sea search should their services be needed in the next phase of the search efforts.

The companies are Deftech and Boustead which have international collaborative partners such as SAAB group and DCNS (Direction des Constructions Navales).

Hishammuddin said the private contractors are already in discussions with their counterparts to identify the relevant assets and instruments required for the next phase in the search operation.

On the Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle, Hishammudin said the drone is now on its seventh mission to conduct underwater search.

“Bluefin-21 has captured clear and sharp images of the seabed during all the six missions it had conducted underwater. However, no contacts of interest have been found.

"Contrary to the earlier reports published which said the scanning of the seabed will take months to complete, I would like to tell here that the scanning does not take that long. It actually will be completed by next week,” said Hishammuddin.

He said the focus of the search is based on the pings that were detected previously.

Searchers had narrowed down the search for the aircraft some 1,550km northwest of Perth, based on the basis of four acoustic signals they believe are from its black box recorders.

Despite the lack of further detections, the four signals constitute the most promising lead the search teams have had.

The US-made Bluefin-21 is a 4.93m-long sonar device with weighs of 750kg. It can operate at a depth of up to 4,500m – roughly the depth of the ocean floor where the pings were detected – but have gone even deeper in the current search operations.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared soon after taking off on March 8 from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board.

Australian officials supervising the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 told Reuters today that an underwater search for the black box recorder based on "pings" possibly from the device could be completed in five to seven days.

A US navy deep-sea autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is scouring a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean floor for signs of the flight, which disappeared from radars on March 8 with 239 people on board and is believed to have crashed in the area.

The current underwater search has been narrowed to a circular area with a radius of 10 km around the location in which one of four pings believed to have come from the black box recorders was detected on April 8, officials said. – April 19, 2014.