A lone survey vessel has left an Australian port for perhaps the final time to search for the Malaysian airliner that mysteriously crashed into the southern Indian Ocean two years ago.


Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester's office said Tuesday that the Dutch survey ship Fugro Equator left Fremantle on Monday night to continue the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 alone.


His office says whether the voyage is the ship's final month-long deployment from Fremantle before the search is completed will depend on the weather. Chester thanked China for the services of a Chinese ship that joined the search in February of a 120,000-square-kilometer area where authorities calculate that the Boeing 777 crashed with 239 people aboard in 2014. The Chinese ship left the search this month.