Chinese ship to map ocean floor for plane

HONG KONG — The Malaysian government announced last night that a Chinese vessel will survey the ocean floor at the last suspected location of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Hydrographic experts from Malaysia, China and Australia met over the weekend in Canberra, the capital of Australia, and agreed that an extensive survey of the sea floor would be done by a Chinese navy vessel, said Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who is also Malaysia’s acting transport minister.

The suspected location, within international waters, lies 550 miles westnorthwest of Exmouth, a town on the northwestern corner of Australia.

Australia has led the search until now, under authority delegated to it by Malaysia in the search for the missing Boeing 777-200, which disappeared on March 8. The U.S. sent a deep-sea submersible and other gear to be operated from the deck of an Australian ship.

China has been seeking a larger role in the investigation. Its citizens made up two-thirds of the 227 passengers.

The extreme depth of the water, exceeding 15,000 feet in places, has been blamed for making the aircraft exceptionally hard to find.

The Chinese vessel, the Zhu Kezhen, is supposed to produce better maps of the sea floor, which has deep gullies and is buried in silt.