Malaysia to announce details of contracted assets for MH370 search

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Friday in a statement that the details of the contracted assets that would be deployed as Malaysian Government Furnished Equipment for the various stages of the search for the missing MH370 flight would be announced soon. [Special coverage]

He said the deployment of the assets would cover both the bathymetric survey and the search of the sea floor, which would include assets with specific capabilities such as the Multi-Beam Echo Sounder and the Prosas Towed Side Scan Sonar to join the search efforts in the coming months.

Hishammuddin said Rahim Bakri, chair of the Asset Deployment Committee, led a delegation to Australia recently.

"The delegation met with their Australian counterparts to discuss and coordinate the arrangements for Malaysia's participation in this phase of the search operation," he said.

The minister added that Hamzah Zainudin, chair of the Next of Kin Committee, would be leading a delegation of all four Chairs of the Ministerial Sub-Committees and other senior officials to China on Friday in a bid to update the Chinese side on the "latest efforts at the Tripartite level and Malaysia's contribution."

He reaffirmed Malaysia's commitment to continue the search for the missing plane.

Australia announced Thursday a new area for the search of the missing aircraft. The new area, covering about 60,000 square kilometers, would be to the south of the area previously searched, according to Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss.