MH370: Passengers likely suffocated, Australia says
Map showing the new search area in the Indian ocean for missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft MH370, during an announcement by Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss (not pictured), at the Parliament House Canberra, Australia.
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SYDNEY (Reuters): The passengers and crew of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 most likely died from suffocation and coasted lifelessly into the ocean on autopilot, a new report released by Australian officials on Thursday said.
In a 55-page report, the Australian Transport Safety Board outlined how investigators had arrived at this conclusion after comparing the conditions on the flight with previous disasters, although it contained no new evidence from within the jetliner.
The report narrowed down the possible final resting place from thousands of possible routes, while noting the absence of communications and the steady flight path and a number of other key abnormalities in the course of the ill-fated flight.
"Given these observations, the final stages of the unresponsive crew/hypoxia event type appeared to best fit the available evidence for the final period of MH370's flight when it was heading in a generally southerly direction," the ATSB report said.
All of that suggested that the plane most likely crashed farther south into the Indian Ocean than previously thought, Australian officials also said, leading them to announce a shift farther south within the prior search area.
The new analysis comes more than 100 days after the Boeing 777, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared on March 8 shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.
Investigators say what little evidence they have to work with suggests the plane was deliberately diverted thousands of kilometres from its scheduled route before eventually plunging into the Indian Ocean.
The search was narrowed in April after a series of acoustic pings thought to be from the plane's black box recorders were heard along a final arc where analysis of satellite data put its last location.
But a month later, officials conceded the wreckage was not in that concentrated area, some 1,600km off the northwest coast of Australia, and the search area would have to be expanded.
"The new priority area is still focused on the seventh arc, where the aircraft last communicated with satellite. We are now shifting our attention to an area further south along the arc," Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told reporters in Canberra.
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ss said the area was determined after a review of satellite data, early radar information and aircraft performance limits after the plane diverted across the Malaysian peninsula and headed south into one of the remotest areas of the planet.
ss said the area was determined after a review of satellite data, early radar information and aircraft performance limits after the plane diverted across the Malaysian peninsula and headed south into one of the remotest areas of the planet.
"It is highly, highly likely that the aircraft was on autopilot otherwise it could not have followed the orderly path that has been identified through the satellite sightings," Truss said.
The next phase of the search is expected to start in August and take a year, covering some 60,000 sq km at a cost of A$60mil (US$56mil) or more. The search is already the most expensive in aviation history.
The new priority search area is around 2,000km west of Perth, a stretch of isolated ocean frequently lashed by storm force winds and massive swells.
Two vessels, one Chinese and one from Dutch engineering company Fugro, are currently mapping the sea floor along the arc, where depths exceed 5,000 meters in parts.
A tender to find a commercial operator to conduct the sea floor search closes on Monday.
MH370 Tragedy: Hisham’s full statement
27 JUNE 2014 @ 12:02 PM
KUALA LUMPUR: Following is the full statement by Defence Minster Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein
MH370 Refined Search Area
Yesterday, Australia, Malaysia and China announced the refined search area in the southern Indian Ocean for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
An expert satellite working group has been working for nearly 8 weeks now and they have reviewed and refined all the existing information to define the search zone along the arc in the southern Indian Ocean. As Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said yesterday, this refinement of the search area involves the efforts and expertise of Australia's ATSB, China's AAID, the UK's AAIB, the US' NTSB, Malaysia's DCA and many more specialists from around the world.
The priority area is now focused in an area up to 60,000 square kilometres on the seventh arc, where the aircraft last communicated with the satellite. This area is further south along the arc based on the calculations carried out by the expert satellite working group.
Reiterating DPM Truss, due to the unprecedented scale and complexity of the search operation, extremely difficult calculations had to be performed on the specialised satellite communications information in order to refine the search area.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) yesterday released the report outlining the basis on which this search area has been defined.
The search for MH370 still continues. The bathymetric survey is ongoing in the areas provided by the ATSB with the Chinese Zhu Kezhen and the Australian-contracted vessel Fugro Equator. A search of the sea floor will then be conducted based on analysis from the bathymetric survey. The underwater search is vital as any evidence found will assist in the search for MH370.
The details of the contracted assets that will be deployed as Malaysian Government Furnished Equipment for the various stages of both the bathymetric survey and the search of the sea floor will be announced soon. These will include assets with specific capabilities such as the Multi-Beam Echo Sounder and the Prosas Towed Side Scan Sonar to join the search efforts in the coming months.
On that note, Rahim Bakri, Chair of the Asset Deployment Committee recently led a delegation to Canberra, Australia on the 10th of June 2014. The delegation met with their Australian counterparts to discuss and coordinate the arrangements for Malaysia's participation in this phase of the search operation.
Hamzah Zainudin, Chair of the Next of Kin Committee will be leading a delegation of all four Chairs of the Ministerial Sub-Committees and other senior officials to the People's Republic of China today. This meeting is primarily aimed at updating our Chinese counterparts on the latest efforts at the Tripartite level and Malaysia's contribution.
I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm Malaysia's commitment to continue the search for MH370. Malaysia, Australia and China are doing our utmost in the search and our top priority remains to look for the missing MH370.
