Chinese Sonar Vessel To Join MH370 Search

China is set to join the underwater search for Malaysia Airlines MH370 by providing a sonar-equipped vessel by the end of February.

The Chinese vessel Dong Hai Jiu 101 was offered to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in November and will be deployed to join search operations in the southern Indian Ocean, where the plane is believed to have gone down in March 2014.

At the time, China valued its contribution to the search at AUD$20 million (USD$14.2 million).

The Australian-led underwater search is one of the most expensive ever conducted. An initial hunt along a rugged 60,000 sq km (23,000 sq miles) patch of sea floor off the coast of Perth cost AUD$120 million but yielded no sign of the plane.

The presence of the Dong Hai Jiu will take to four the number of vessels scouring a search area that has been expanded to 120,000 square km (46,330 square miles) of ocean floor.

The vessel is expected to leave Singapore for Australia on January 31 and commence operations towards the end of February.

The sonar system onboard the Dong Hai Jiu 101 will be operated by Phoenix International and Hydrospheric Solutions. Both companies have previous experience in the search for MH370.

Earlier this week, Australian authorities said the search team had lost a deep-water sonar detector that was being used in the search.