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Australians Searching for Jet Debris Will Use Human Spotters, Not Radar China, Japan and Britain Join Search for Missing Jet in Indian Ocean
(about 4 hours later)
SYDNEY, Australia — Australian aircraft searching for signs of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane will abandon radar scanning and rely on human spotters peering across a remote expanse of ocean, an official overseeing the hunt for floating debris that might be wreckage from the jet said Friday. SYDNEY, Australia — China, Japan and Britain will join the search for signs of the missing Malaysia Airlines airliner far off Australia’s west coast, where Australian aircraft used human spotters on Friday to scan a remote expanse of ocean for floating debris that might be wreckage from the airliner. They found none.
John Young, the Australian official directing the search in the southern Indian Ocean for signs of Flight 370, announced the shift on the second day of a multinational airborne operation over deep waters. The Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, said on Thursday that satellite imagery had revealed two large, indistinct objects in the area that might be wreckage from the Boeing 777-200, which vanished nearly two weeks ago with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board. The expansion of the multinational operation in the southern Indian Ocean illustrated how the bleak search for the missing jet has partly dampened regional tensions. China and Japan are locked in a dispute over islands in the East China Sea but their forces will work in coordination with a sophisticated United States Navy surveillance plane and Australian military P-3 Orion planes and vessels.
Mr. Young described the shift in methods after one of five planes taking part in the hunt Friday headed back to base in Western Australia without having made any promising sightings. The first day of the search Thursday was fruitless, and Mr. Young said that using human spotters, while slower, might be more promising than radar. Two days of searching the ocean 1,500 miles southwest of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, have brought no sightings of possible debris from the plane.
Almost two weeks after the plane vanished without a trace, Hishammuddin Hussein, the defense minister of Malaysia, which is in charge of the overall search, said it was “very, very” difficult to talk with waiting families about the possibility that the 227 passengers and 12 crew members had died.
Their most important question, “where are their loved ones,” cannot be answered, he said at a news conference Friday near Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where the plane left on March 8 for a flight to Beijing
The Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, kindled hope on Thursday that the waters off Western Australia might hold clues to the plane’s fate. He said that a satellite had photographed two large objects floating in the southern Indian Ocean that might be debris from the Boeing 777.
Australian aircraft failed on Friday to find anything resembling the objects in the remote expanse of ocean 3,000 meters, or 9,840 feet, deep, said the country’s maritime safety authority. But Mr. Hishammuddin, who is also Malaysia’s acting transport minister, called the indistinct satellite images of the objects the best lead available and announced that more ships and surveillance planes would head to the area to help.
Japan will send two P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft to join the search, and Britain has agreed to send a naval ship, the H.M.S. Echo, Mr. Hishammuddin said. Separately, the Chinese government announced it would send three military aircraft to Australia for the search, joining a Chinese polar exploration vessel and merchant ships.
“This crisis has put a heavy burden on Asian countries to cooperate,” said Bridget Welsh, a political scientist at Singapore Management University. “But there’s still the issues of wariness and lack of trust between them and some other partners.”
She continued: “We see this affecting the questions of sharing data from satellite technology, working together, especially between China and the United States.”
Mr. Hishammuddin said he planned to call the American defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, to seek more “help with the search and rescue efforts, including remotely operated vehicles for deep-ocean salvage.”
But the search for signs of Flight 370 is not all high-tech. John Young, the Australian official directing the search in the southern Indian Ocean, said the Australian planes would, for now at least, abandon radar scanning and rely on human spotters.
Mr. Young said that using human spotters might be slower, but that it was more promising than radar.
“Noting that we got no radar detections yesterday, we have replanned the search to be visual,” he said in a question-and-answer video posted online by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in Canberra, the capital, where Mr. Young is general manager of the emergency response division.“Noting that we got no radar detections yesterday, we have replanned the search to be visual,” he said in a question-and-answer video posted online by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in Canberra, the capital, where Mr. Young is general manager of the emergency response division.
The change, Mr. Young said, involved “aircraft flying relatively low, very highly skilled and trained observers looking out of the aircraft windows.” But he also noted that relying on the human eye would be more time-consuming than using radar. Taking into account the distance from the shore — the planes must fly 2,500 kilometers, or 1,500 miles, southwest of Perth, the capital of Western Australia — Australia’s P-3 Orions have only a couple of hours over the area where the objects may be floating, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. The change, Mr. Young said, involved “aircraft flying relatively low, very highly skilled and trained observers looking out of the aircraft windows.”
Because of the distance from the shore, Australia’s P-3 Orions have only a couple of hours over the area where the objects may be floating, the maritime safety authority said.
“The aircraft are spaced more closely together and we will need more aircraft for a search of that type,” Mr. Young said. “Although this search area is much smaller than we started with, it nonetheless is a big area when you’re looking out the window and trying to see something by eye. We may have to do this a few times to be confident about the coverage of that search area.”“The aircraft are spaced more closely together and we will need more aircraft for a search of that type,” Mr. Young said. “Although this search area is much smaller than we started with, it nonetheless is a big area when you’re looking out the window and trying to see something by eye. We may have to do this a few times to be confident about the coverage of that search area.”
The first search plane that flew out on Friday from a base near Perth, a Royal Australian Air Force P-3 Orion, headed back without spotting anything likely to be the large floating pieces, Mr. Young said. The search was to be joined later in the day by two more of the Australian Air Force’s Orion aircraft, as well as an ultralong-range Bombardier Global Express jet hired by the Australian search operation. The search planes flying out to sea from a base near Perth have included four of the Royal Australian Air Force’s Orion P-3 surveillance aircraft. An ultralong-range Bombardier Global Express jet hired by the Australian search operation is also involved. And the hunt has been joined by New Zealand, which has sent a P-3 Orion surveillance plane, and the United States, which has sent a Navy P-8A Poseidon search plane.
The hunt over the remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean has been joined by New Zealand, which has sent a P-3 Orion surveillance plane, and the United States, which has sent a Navy P-8A Poseidon search plane. Cmdr. William J. Marks, the spokesman for the United States Navy’s Seventh Fleet, said in an email that the Poseidon would probably spend three hours over the search area on Friday, as it had on Thursday. Cmdr. William J. Marks, the spokesman for the United States Navy’s Seventh Fleet, said in an email that the Poseidon would probably spend three hours over the search area on Friday, as it had on Thursday. He said the P-8A Poseidon would continue to use radar and other electronic sensing devices for the search.
In comments sent by email earlier this week, Commander Marks explained the difficulties that radar searches could encounter. “Even when the weather is bad we don’t give up the radar search and exclusively switch to visual,” he said by email. “The radar is pretty amazing in that you can adjust for sea clutter to optimize the search.”
“High sea states can give the radar false returns or phantom contacts (although radar software has the ability to negate some of that), creating significantly more work for the operators,” he wrote. “Higher sea states also affect the visual search, making objects in the water difficult to discern from the waves.” The Australian government’s announcement of the satellite findings Thursday ignited intense media interest. But the search for the objects seen in the images could be time-consuming, with no guarantee that they can be found and even less certainty that they are indeed from the missing plane.
But weather conditions alone did not seem to be the reason for the Australian shift in search methods. Mr. Young said weather over the ocean area was likely to be more helpful for the planes on Friday than it was the previous day. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said the ocean swell there would ease to around two meters, or 6.5 feet. Both Mr. Young and Mr. Abbott, the prime minister, sought Thursday to temper any hopes that parts of the jet might finally have been found. One of the floating objects appeared to be around 24 meters, or 79 feet, long, Mr. Young said, but he could not say what shape it was or whether it had markings that would identify it. The other appeared to be about five meters, or 16 feet, long, he said.
The P-8A Poseidon is larger and more advanced than the P-3 Orion, and it was unclear whether the Poseidon was part of the visual search plan. Commander Marks and his colleagues did not immediately answer an email or phone calls. “We will be looking to see if we can acquire more satellite imagery that would provide new or refined information,” Mr. Young said on Friday. “We want to find these objects, because they are the best lead to where we might find people to be rescued.”
The Australian government’s announcement of the satellite findings Thursday ignited intense media interest. But the search for the objects seen in the images could be time-consuming, with no guarantee that they can be found and even less certainty that they are indeed from Flight 370, which disappeared on March 8 after departing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for a night flight to Beijing. The stretch of ocean where the objects were spotted sees relatively little traffic. But a cargo ship that happened to be somewhat close, bound for Melbourne, Australia, from the island of Mauritius, was diverted south from its usual route two days ago at the request of the Australian authorities. It reached the area of the satellite sighting late on Wednesday, the first ship to arrive there, but it saw nothing on Thursday. An Australian naval vessel dispatched to the area was still several days away.
Both Mr. Young and Mr. Abbott, the prime minister, sought Thursday to temper any hopes that parts of the jet might finally have been found. David Griffin, an oceanographer who is working with the Australian maritime authority to study currents in the southern Indian Ocean, said that satellite monitoring and computer models of currents and other conditions could help predict where the objects might drift. But he also said there was the real risk that they could sink before searchers find them.
“We must keep in mind the task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult and it may turn out that they are not related,” Mr. Abbott said.
One of the floating objects appeared to be around 24 meters, or 79 feet, long, Mr. Young said, but he could not say what shape it was or whether it had markings on it that would identify it. The other appeared to be about 5 meters, or 16 feet, long, he said.
“We will be looking to see if we can acquire more satellite imagery that would provide new or refined information,” he said on Friday. “We want to find these objects, because they are the best lead to where we might find people to be rescued.”
The stretch of ocean where the objects were spotted sees relatively little traffic. But a cargo ship that happened to be somewhat close, bound for Melbourne, Australia, from the island of Mauritius, was diverted south from its usual route two days ago at the request of the Australian authorities. It reached the area of the satellite sighting late on Wednesday, the first ship to arrive there, but it saw nothing on Thursday. An Australian naval vessel dispatched to the area, the Success, was still several days away.
David Griffin, an oceanographer who is working with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority to study currents in the southern Indian Ocean, said that satellite monitoring and computer models of currents and other conditions could help predict where the objects might drift. But he also said there was the real risk that they could sink before searchers find them.
“Assuming they stay floating, we can say to some extent where they are going in the future and where they came from in the past,” said Mr. Griffin, who works for Australia’s chief scientific research institute, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.“Assuming they stay floating, we can say to some extent where they are going in the future and where they came from in the past,” said Mr. Griffin, who works for Australia’s chief scientific research institute, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.
The southern Indian Ocean does not usually harbor large amounts of flotsam and jetsam, such as shipping containers from merchant vessels, he said.The southern Indian Ocean does not usually harbor large amounts of flotsam and jetsam, such as shipping containers from merchant vessels, he said.
“The main thing is the draft and how far it hangs down into the water,” Mr. Griffin said. He said a piece of debris with a one- or two-meter draft, or depth below the surface, would drift in an ocean current in a way that is different from, for example, a fishing net hanging 50 meters down in the water. The ocean depth is a fairly constant 3,000 meters, or 9,840 feet, in the search area, he said.“The main thing is the draft and how far it hangs down into the water,” Mr. Griffin said. He said a piece of debris with a one- or two-meter draft, or depth below the surface, would drift in an ocean current in a way that is different from, for example, a fishing net hanging 50 meters down in the water. The ocean depth is a fairly constant 3,000 meters, or 9,840 feet, in the search area, he said.
Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of March 8 and stopped communicating with ground controllers about 40 minutes later. For more than an hour, military radar tracked a plane that is thought to have been Flight 370, veering sharply off the original course and flying west toward the Indian Ocean. Automatic satellite signals emitted by the plane indicated that it kept flying for hours after that, with the last signal detected about a half-hour before it would have exhausted its fuel. Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of March 8 and stopped communicating with ground controllers about 40 minutes later. For more than an hour, military radar tracked a plane that is believed to be the Malaysia Airlines plane, veering sharply off the original course and flying west toward the Indian Ocean. Automatic satellite signals emitted by the plane indicated that it kept flying for hours after that, with the last signal detected about a half-hour before it would have exhausted its fuel.
By that point, the signals indicated, the plane was probably somewhere along a broad arc sweeping from Central Asia through Southeast Asia and out into the ocean; officials are concentrating on the southern portion of the arc as the most likely area, and that is roughly where the floating objects were seen.By that point, the signals indicated, the plane was probably somewhere along a broad arc sweeping from Central Asia through Southeast Asia and out into the ocean; officials are concentrating on the southern portion of the arc as the most likely area, and that is roughly where the floating objects were seen.
The satellite images, which were released to the public, are dated March 16. “The imagery has been progressively captured by satellites passing over various areas,” John McGarry, air commodore of the Royal Australian Air Force, said on Thursday. “The task of analyzing the imagery is quite difficult. It requires drawing down frames and going through it frame by frame.” He added that the images were passed to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority as soon as the signs of floating debris were discovered. A senior American investigator said he was “highly skeptical” that the debris spotted by the satellite came from an airplane. “I’ve seen the pictures,” he said. “Those pieces are pretty damned big.” In a crash, he said, the airplane usually breaks up into smaller pieces.
A senior American investigator said he was “highly skeptical” that the debris spotted on satellite came from an airplane. “I’ve seen the pictures,” he said. “Those pieces are pretty damned big.”
In a crash, he said, the airplane usually breaks up into smaller pieces.
If the investigator is correct, it would be the second large piece of debris that was initially identified as possibly being part of the plane and turned out to be something else. A few days after the crash, the Chinese released a satellite picture of something they said might be wreckage from a Boeing 777. It proved to be too big.
The American investigator also said that a review of the cargo manifest showed that the plane was carrying lithium batteries, but that this was not unusual, and that the plane’s pattern of movements, as recorded by radar, “wouldn’t fit with any known in-flight fire we’ve had to date.”