MH370 search vessel on final bid to find missing jet

A Royal New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion was among the aircraft and vessels that searched for Flight MH370. Photo / AP

The final search vessel has left to make one final sweep of the deep sea to try and solve the greatest aviation mystery of all time, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

MV Fugro Equator left Fremantle for the deep ocean ravines that might hold the remains of the Boeing 777 with 239 people on board that disappeared on March 8, 2014.

If the MH370 is not found in one of the deep ocean trenches then the search will be called off in January or February under an agreement between Australia, Malaysia and China.

It would resume if new information emerged. "It has been an heroic undertaking but we have to prepare ourselves for the prospect that we may not find MH370 in the coming weeks, although we remain hopeful," Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester told the West Australian newspaper.

An autonomous underwater vehicle will be used that can dive 6km under the surface to explore about 200 trenches and canyons almost 3000km south-west of Perth that have not been investigated so far in the 120,000 sq km search zone.

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Debris from MH370 have so far washed up in Mozambique, Tanzania, Madagascar, Reunion Island and Mauritius.

The plane veered off course while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, and flew south over the Indian Ocean for six hours before contact was lost, satellite data showed.

- AAP