The deep-sea search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has resumed in a remote region of the Indian Ocean after a four-month pause.

The seabed has been mapped in the area where the aircraft is believed to have crashed.

The GO Phoenix vessel provided by Malaysian Government has reached the search area around 1,800km west of Australia and commenced an underwater search today.

The ship will tow jet fuel sensors over the sea floor and use sonar technology to locate the aircraft.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Martin Dolan was quoted by Associated Press as saying: "We’re cautiously optimistic; cautious because of all the technical and other challenges we’ve got, but optimistic because we’re confident in the analysis.

"But it’s just a very big area that we’re looking at."

"The ship will tow jet fuel sensors over the sea floor and use sonar technology to locate the aircraft."

Two other vessels to be supplied by Dutch contractor Fugro, Equator and Discovery, will join the search later this month.

Discovery, which is currently docked at the Fremantle port, will be equipped with a towfish and other equipment before it starts its journey to the search zone, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Equator is currently conducting bathymetric survey on the seafloor where the search has been concentrated and will reach Fremantle after the mapping is completed.

Fugro was selected by Australia in August to lead the rebooted search operation.

Military search crews have scanned the ocean surface for more than three months after the Boeing 777 went missing, but no traces of the aircraft were found.

An underwater search earlier this year also proved futile.

The Beijing-bound MH370 aircraft vanished off radar screens on 8 March, an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur, with 239 people onboard.

Defence Technology