Search for missing MH370 enters new phase, says Aussie PM
The Malaysian Insider – 2 hours 11 minutes agoRELATED CONTENT
- Search for missing MH370 enters new phase, says Aussie PM
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said today that it was highly unlikely any debris would be found on the ocean surface from a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner, and that a new phase would now begin during which a much larger area of the ocean floor would be searched.
Abbott said the underwater hunt for flight MH370 would be intensified as it conducts as thorough a search as "humanly possible".
"If necessary, of the entire probable impact zone which is roughly 700 kilometres by 80 kilometres," he told reporters, when asked about the size of the search area.
He said it could take between six and eight months to completely examine the area.
Australia is coordinating the hunt for the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 which disappeared on March 8 carrying 239 people and is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.
Aircraft and ships have been scanning the surface of vast tracts of remote ocean off the western Australian coast for more than 40 days with no signs of wreckage from the plane.
"I am now required to say to you that it is highly unlikely at this stage that we will find any aircraft debris on the ocean surface," Abbott told reporters in Canberra.
"By this stage, 52 days into the search, most material would have become water logged and sunk," he added.
"With the distances involved, all of the aircraft are operating at close to the limit of sensible and safe operation."
The search area for MH370 has been defined by analysis of satellite data, and was boosted by several detections of transmissions believed to have come from the plane's black box recorders before their batteries died.
A submersible Bluefin-21 scouring a 400 square kilometre zone centred around one of these transmissions has so far failed to yield any results despite searching almost the entire area.
Abbott said the Bluefin-21 would continue its hunt, while Australia in consultation with the Malaysian government was willing to engage one or more commercial companies to undertake the extra work.
"While the search will be moving to a new phase in coming weeks, it certainly is not ending," the prime minister said. – Agencies, April 28, 2014.
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