AUSTRALIA’S only member aboard the GO Phoenix searching for the Malaysian Airlines plane which disappeared over the Indian Ocean in March said the team was finding it difficult to get images of the whole seabed.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau contractor Peter Barr is on a break at home in Manly before he rejoins the team on the vessel next month.

The GO Phoenix tows a search vehicle with a sonar sound echo locator about 100m above the seabed to try and detect wreckage.

media_camera Towed vehicle which searches seabed

Mr Barr, whose expertise is in hydrography, has overseen daily operations and helped check sonar records for signs of wreckage.

Mr Barr said the search for MH370 was going well but it had its challenges – the sonar had to detect objects as small as a metre, he said.

“While the (vehicle) can do that at up to 1km either side, the seabed in that region of the southern Indian Ocean is incredibly rugged with seamounts and ridges rising hundreds of metres.

“This makes it very difficult to obtain images of all the seabed.”

The underwater search began last month. The effort could take 12 months.

While Mr Barr declined to rate the chances of finding the plane, he said there was added incentive for the ­designers of the search ­vehicle.

“They are not working for a large corporation but rather a small start-up company out of Seattle,” he said.

“They have a lot riding on locating the aircraft.”