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Australia Vows to Stick With Search for Jetliner Nations Vow to Stick With Jet Search as Black Box Batteries Fade
(about 11 hours later)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — As the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 resumed Monday morning, Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia, which has been coordinating the effort, said his country was committed to continuing the hunt despite its immense challenges, mounting costs and failure to find any trace of the plane. KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Australia and Malaysia led an intensified multinational search on Monday for the remains of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in the southern Indian Ocean and prepared to deploy a submersible device to detect any pings from the aircraft’s black boxes, only days before their batteries are expected to die.
Speaking to reporters at Pearce Air Force Base, north of Perth in Western Australia, he said that the search in the Indian Ocean remained extraordinarily difficult but that he was not considering ending the country’s participation. But in contending with a revised search area the size of Poland, there was no immediate indication the searchers were any closer to finding traces of the aircraft or its 239 passengers and crew. The plane has now been missing for more than three weeks.
“We are well short of that point,” he said. “We can keep searching for quite some time to come.” Although frustrations and costs have escalated, Malaysian and Australian officials asserted they would keep searching indefinitely.
He added: “If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it, but I don’t want to underestimate how difficult it is.” Malaysia has been under increasing pressure, particularly from relatives of Chinese passengers on the March 8 Kuala Lumpur-to-Beijing flight, to produce evidence of the plane’s fate. Most of the passengers were Chinese.
The international search effort intensified Monday, with 10 planes and 10 ships scheduled to scour the latest search area about 1,100 miles west of Perth. Australia’s defense minister, David Johnston, said about 100 air personnel and 1,000 sailors would be in the zone on Monday. “We understand that it has been a difficult time for all the families and we appreciate that many families want to see physical evidence before they will accept that MH370 ended in the south Indian Ocean,” Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s defense minister, said at a news conference here, using the flight’s call sign.
Additional ships were en route to the area and were expected to arrive in the next several days, including an Australian naval vessel, the Ocean Shield, outfitted with special equipment to detect the pings of the plane’s data and cockpit voice recorders, or black boxes, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the search. “We will continue with all our efforts to find MH370,” he said. “This is a promise that Malaysia intends to keep.”
During each of the past three days, aircraft spotted debris floating in the new search zone, though none of it has so far been linked to the missing plane. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia, whose country has been coordinating the search in the Indian Ocean, said that he was not considering ending Australian participation.
On Saturday, crews on two ships pulled several objects from the rough waters, raising hopes that perhaps the first physical evidence of the Boeing 777-200 had been found. But the debris turned out to be “fishing equipment and other flotsam,” the authority said in a statement late Sunday. “We can keep searching for quite some time to come,” he said.
In Malaysia, more than two dozen relatives of Chinese passengers on Flight 370 arrived from China on Sunday to press Malaysian officials for more answers about the investigation. The Malaysian government has endured withering criticism from the relatives and friends of Chinese passengers, both in Malaysia and in China, who have accused officials of withholding information about the disappearance of the plane and not doing enough to find it. Ten planes and 11 ships were ordered to scour the latest search area, about 1,100 miles west of Perth. The Australian defense minister, David Johnston, said about 100 air personnel and 1,000 sailors were in the zone.
The group protested at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur and demanded an apology from the Malaysian government for declaring last week that the plane had crashed into the Indian Ocean, saying there was insufficient evidence to support that conclusion. Additional ships were en route, expected to arrive within days, including an Australian naval vessel, the Ocean Shield, equipped to detect the pings of the plane’s data and cockpit voice recorders, or black boxes, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, the government agency coordinating the search.
Government officials said later that they planned to hold a briefing for the family members that would include “high-level representatives of the Malaysian government.” Capt. Mark Matthews, a supervisor of a team from the United States Navy that is involved in the search, said the effectiveness of the detection equipment would depend on “how effective we are at reducing that search area.”
The Ocean Shield, an offshore salvage and support vessel that will be carrying the ping-detecting device, was supposed leave Perth on Sunday, but its departure was rescheduled for Monday, officials said. The ship will also be carrying an unmanned underwater vehicle. Captain Matthews said the so-called pinger locator, towed behind the ship, was a batwing-shaped device with a microphone that could pick up signals from Flight 370’s black boxes.
Capt. Mark Matthews, a supervisor of a team from the United States Navy involved in the search, said the effectiveness of the detection equipment would depend on “how effective we are at reducing that search area.”
Captain Matthews said the so-called pinger locator, which is towed behind the ship, was a batwing-shaped device with a microphone that could pick up signals from Flight 370’s black boxes.
The submersible can be deployed to map a debris field on the ocean floor using sonar, and then to use a camera to provide what Captain Matthews called “a full mosaic” of the debris field.The submersible can be deployed to map a debris field on the ocean floor using sonar, and then to use a camera to provide what Captain Matthews called “a full mosaic” of the debris field.
But the ping detector’s utility, in the absence of more specific information about the location of the wreckage, is doubtful. The device will be towed at an average of about 3 miles per hour, Captain Matthews said, and the submersible moves at about 3½ miles per hour. The new search area, which was established on Friday, is roughly the size of Poland. But the ping detector’s utility, in the absence of more specific information about the location of the wreckage, is doubtful. The device will be towed at an average speed of about 3 miles per hour, Captain Matthews said, and the submersible moves at about 3½ miles per hour.
“Nothing is fast in underwater search,” Captain Matthews said.“Nothing is fast in underwater search,” Captain Matthews said.
Searchers, however, say there is no time to waste: The pinger locator will be ineffective once the batteries powering the black boxes die, which is expected to happen next week. Searchers say there is no time to waste: The pinger locator will be ineffective once the batteries powering the black boxes die, which is expected to happen next week.
The recovery of debris from Flight 370 might also help pinpoint the location of the wreckage, though experts are doubtful. Mr. Hishammuddin said the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, would travel to Pearce Air Force Base in Australia on Wednesday to thank the multinational force participating in the search and to view the efforts.
When debris is found quickly enough after a crash into the sea, investigators can trace its drift back to the impact site and conduct an underwater search for the black boxes. But in the case of Flight 370, any debris, if found, might well have drifted hundreds of miles since the plane’s disappearance and be of limited use in finding the crash site. Since Friday, when the search zone was shifted from an area about 700 miles south, aircraft have made daily sightings of floating objects. On closer inspection by crews on the ships, none of the items has been linked to the missing plane, a Boeing 777-200.
The search area was shifted after new analysis of radar data from the morning of March 8 — when Flight 370 apparently veered off its intended route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing — determined that the plane was traveling faster than previously thought and therefore would have burned fuel more quickly and possibly have fallen into the Indian Ocean farther north than previously believed. Two planes flying over the zone on Sunday spotted what Mr. Hishammuddin called “potential objects.” A ship in the area was dispatched to the spot on Monday to retrieve them, he said.
The new zone is about 700 miles north of the previous search area. As a measure of how difficult it has been for spotters on the planes to classify objects in the ocean, crews on two ships pulled several objects from the rough waters on Saturday, raising hopes that the first physical evidence of the airliner had been found. But the items turned out to be “fishing equipment and other flotsam,” the Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement.
In Malaysia, more than two dozen relatives of Chinese passengers on Flight 370 arrived from China on Sunday to press Malaysian officials for more information about the investigation.
Mr. Hishammuddin reaffirmed on Monday that the Malaysian government intended to host the families at a briefing with high-level officials, and said the meeting would be broadcast to Beijing for relatives of passengers there.
The Malaysian government has endured withering criticism from the relatives and friends of Chinese passengers, both in Malaysia and in China, who have accused officials of withholding information about the disappearance of the plane and not doing enough to find it.
The group that arrived Sunday protested at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur and demanded an apology from the Malaysian government for declaring last week that the plane had ended its flight in the southern Indian Ocean, saying there was insufficient evidence to support that conclusion.