Search Area For MH370 To Widen Tomorrow
- Details
- Published on Monday, 10 March 2014 23:41
Malaysians pray during a candlelight vigil for the passengers of Malaysia Airlines MH370 near Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur March 10, 2014. Pic: Saw Siow Feng/The Malay MailSEPANG: Malaysian authorities will expand the search area for the Malaysia Airline jet missing since Saturday, doubling it to 100 nautical miles starting tomorrow morning.
Over the past three days, search and rescue teams scoured a 50 nautical mile radius from the point where the plane lost contact with the Subang air traffic control, approximately 120 nautical miles off Kota Baru, Kelantan, with no success
“The east sector will be expanded to 100 nautical miles starting tomorrow, and at the same time we will also expand our operations in the South China Sea,”Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Razak said late today
Teams were also deployed in the South China Sea after the Vietnamese navy discovered two lengthy oil slicks that were suspected to have come from the plane but later proven untrue.
There were also numerous false starts reported over the past few days, such as another oil slick found off the coast of Tok Bali in Kelantan, which was later clarified as oil from a shipping tanker and not jet fuel.
The sighting of the plane’s tail, later turned out to be “logs tied together like a pontoon”, and a moss-covered cable reel was mistaken for a lifecraft.
Azharuddin said the latest information suggested debris from the plane was in waters off Hong Kong and east of Saigon, Vietnam. Ships have since been despatched to the two areas.
“We have not verified it yet, but by tomorrow we should be able to tell (if it is from the plane),” he said.
The DCA chief insisted that the operation remains a search and rescue effort and not disaster recovery, as the plane is still categorised as missing.
/The Malay Mail
Air Force chief Maj-Gen Datuk Effendi Buang said the ships and aircraft deployed to cover the South China Sea will work in clusters starting from where the plane could have ended up if it had turned back from the point it lost contact.
From there, the teams will comb the Malacca Straits in four sectors, before heading northwest towards Vietnamese waters.
Search and rescue teams deployed off Kota Baru, in an area dubbed the Igari sector, will operate in much the same way, with teams working specific blocks to maximise their coverage of the entire 100 nautical mile radius.
Surface operations involving naval vessels continue into the night, while airborne operations will resume at 7am.
-The Malay Mail
.jpg)
