A Mermac R40 winch from Denmark-headquartered MacArtney is to be used for the continuing search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the Boeing 777-200ER which disappeared over the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam two years ago.
239 passengers and crew vanished on the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The plane’s transponder stopped transmitting and the passenger jet seemingly disappeared without a trace. Following an intensive search involving planes and ships from 14 countries and a session of careful flight data analysis, it was determined that the plane had diverted south. Since then, resources have been focused on a swathe of the Indian Ocean, about 2000 km west of Australia - the so-called ‘Seventh Arc’.
In 2015, top ranking government officials from both Australia and China had a meeting and discussed about the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. China offered to help searching for the wreck by deploying a search and rescue vessel.
MacArtney won the tender to supply a Mermac R40 winch for a Benthos deep tow sonar system. The winch is to be installed on board the search and rescue vessel Nan Hai Jiu 102 and the search for flight MH370 is going to be reinitiated in June 2016 by an Australian-based search team.
The MacArtney Mermac R electrically driven winch in question is a robust and advanced vehicle handling system which safely controls the launch, operation and recovery of ROVs and towed vehicle systems.
MacArtney says the Mermac R features high power and speed, minimal maintenance requirements, a rugged and compact design, active heave compensation and a unique remote diagnostics tool. The winches are available in standard and custom configurations.
By Jake Frith
