CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia has announced that a Dutch contractor will conduct the underwater search for the Malaysian airliner that crashed off the Australian coast in March.

Transport Minister Warren Truss said on Wednesday that Fugro Survey Pty. Ltd. will use two vessels towing underwater vehicles equipped with side-scan sonar and video equipment to search for the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777.

The search is expected to begin in September and take up to a year to search 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles) of the Indian Ocean seabed.

The airliner disappeared on March 8 with 239 people aboard after flying far of course during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.