One of the vessels in the area is probably the offshore vessel Burullus. Which is probably capable of handling a number of subsea equipments and has a heli deck and medium lift crane. Deck space is similar to what was used for the AirAsia A320 (the crane is in an offset position, so useable deckspace is less). Burullus has the word RESCUE written on the side. So it will have more than average rescue/recovery equipment on board. On one of the pictures of the ship there is an A-frame (U) on the starboard side ... picture is not sharp, but looks like a submersible vehicle under it.
Outside the search area ... It also appears there is a Saipem installation in the area ... do not have the specs of that though. And even one or more Fugro vessels in the area. So there is some potentially useful floating infrastructure about (but not involved (yet)). Have not read anything about this though.
Submarines certainly do not go that deep. In the search for MH370 it was mentioned once that a UK sub was used. Probably for pinger detection attempts.
Divers are of course not used either. But they will come in play during recoveries later, but only just before or during 'breaking the surface'.
This is getting a bit outside the interest of a pilot forum perhaps.
Last edited by A0283; 23rd May 2016 at 17:41.