LOCAL Houston | The City Guide February 2018 | Page 58

FOOD | ARTS | COMMUNITY | STYLE+LEISURE
PUTTING TECHNOLOGY TO THE TEST
IN SEARCH OF MALAYSIA AIRLINES FLIGHT 370
When most people think of Houston, TX, a few things consistently come to mind: oil and gas, rodeo, NASA, football, leading subsea search and exploration technology,
barbec…wait, rewind…what? That’s right. A city historically famous for being the long-time home of NASA and a world leader in space travel and exploration technology,
also happens to be home to a company helping to lead the way in subsea search and exploration technology, the complete opposite direction of their astral counterparts.
Most Houstonians are probably unaware, that nestled on a stretch of Hillcroft near
the Southwest Freeway is one of the most famous subsea technology companies in
the world. A multinational firm, Fugro, with 10,500 employees spread out over a
vast network of 174 offices and facilities in 50 countries, has called Houston home
for over 25 years. Why the “famous” tag though? Well, in 2014, Fugro was award-
ed the commercial contract by the Australian Transportation Safety Board (ATSB) to
help crack one of aviation’s greatest unanswered mysteries: How did MALAYSIA
AIRLINES FLIGHT 370, a Boeing 777 carrying 239 people, vanish without a trace,
in today’s modern age of cutting-edge surveillance and technology? Fugro, it was
decided, was up to the task of answering that question, having achieved the highest
technical score along with compliance on all requirements of the ATSB’s tender.
Whereas most of their fellow project bidders specialized in deep ocean wreckage
search-and-recovery, Fugro’s strengths historically centered on geotechnical services
such as underwater mapping for offshore oil and gas clients.
The search for MH370 was the largest such undertaking in history, consisting of not
only an impressive array of cutting-edge technology, but also a large team of hard-
working and dedicated people with targeted areas of expertise and experience, all
working jointly to hopefully, ultimately, provide closure in locating the missing airline.
Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, Fugro mobilized four vessels over the
course of the survey and search operations, two deep tow sonar systems and one
autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with over a hundred experienced staff to carry
out the largest ultra-deep survey ever undertaken, in intensely challenging conditions.
The deep tow sonar vehicles on the Fugro Discovery and Fugro Equator vessels,
were equipped with sonar, multibeam echosounders and HD video cameras used to
scour the seafloor at an astounding depth of 19,600 feet. Additionally, the use of
hydrocarbon sensors enabled the detection of minute quantities of fuel in the water.
The deep tow sonar vehicles would collect the data that was then transferred via
10,000 meter-long fibre optic towcables to the vessel’s instrument room, where it
was then assimilated to produ