LANGKAWI: Three sonar specialists have joined the search team for Lucas Bondezan, a 24-year-old Brazilian, reported missing after a yacht exploded at sea near Penang last September.
The team spokesman, Nicholas De Souza today said Czech national Miroslav Hlavik, Pavel Famichou and Andrei Maryin from Belarus, would join 15 other members of the team to the search area within the next few days.
"The others are professional divers and they will be doing the search within the 10 to 12km radius of the accident site and we hope to complete it within a month," he told reporters here.
He said the search which started since the Sept 16 incident had so far failed to locate the wreckage nor the remains of Bondezan, whom they believed was trapped inside the vessel.
"This time we are very confident that within 30 days, we will be able to find something," he said.
Bondezan was the youngest of two siblings and during the incident, he was on his way to Singapore from Langkawi when the boat, UN1K, exploded at mid-sea and sank about 12km off the Penang shore.
Three others, Siberian Novak Novakovic, 28, Croatian Rudolf Kolic, 61, and the captain Jaroslav Horejsek, 37, of the Czech Republic were injured and rescued by local fishermen.
De Souza said about RM5.6 million had been spent in the first two phases of the search and he estimated another RM2 million would be needed for the third phase.
He said the Bondezan family had been emotionally distraught ever since the incident and wanted to see at least a fragment of his remains found as a closure to this sad episode.
"This will be the first Christmas for the family without Lucas around," he said. -- Bernama