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New debris sightings but no confirmed signs of missing Malaysian airliner New debris sightings but no confirmed signs of missing Malaysian airliner
(about 5 hours later)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Search crews looking for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 set out again Monday morning after efforts Sunday resulted in new debris sightings but no confirmed signs of the passenger jet. KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia —The largest contingent yet of search planes and ships hunting for a missing Malaysian airliner ended work Monday without success.
An Australian navy support vessel is due to arrive in the search area on April 3 with equipment that will allow the crew to begin listening for “pings” from the plane’s black box, according to Malaysia’s defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein. It was to join nine other ships and 10 planes scouring the Indian Ocean for signs of the plane, which vanished March 8. But the exact location of where the plane went down has not been determined. Ten ships and ten planes from seven countries scoured a section of the Indian Ocean larger than the state of California during the day, hoping to find debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished March 8 with 239 people on board.
Time is running out for the search team to locate the black box, a critical piece of equipment containing cockpit audio and flight data. The box will emit signals for about 30 days, which means the operation has only about a week left to find it before it goes silent. An Australian navy support vessel left for the search area on Monday with equipment that will allow the crew to begin listening for “pings” from the plane’s black box, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. It is expected to take “several days” to arrive and begin hunting for the device, a critical piece of equipment that contains audio recordings from the cockpit and flight data, the AMSA said late Monday evening.
The hunt for Flight 370 stepped into a higher gear Sunday. Nine planes — from Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, the United States and Malaysia — crisscrossed the 198,200-square-mile search area off the coast of Australia. Crews from some of the planes spotted objects floating in the water Sunday. But determining whether that debris is related to the plane will have to wait until ships find the items and scoop them up for examination. Locating the black box is perhaps the best chance investigators have of deciphering exactly where the plane went down and what happened to it.
“We will never give up until we find out what happened to MH370,” said Hishammuddin on Monday. In addition, Australian prime minister Tony Abott said he was “not putting a time limit” on the search. But time is running out. The box will emit signals for about 30 days, which means that by the time the ship arrives in the search area to begin looking for it, the operation may have less than a week left before it goes silent.
“We will never give up until we find out what happened to MH370,” Malaysian defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Monday. In addition, Australian prime minister Tony Abott said he was “not putting a time limit” on the search.
Hishammuddin announced that a new joint agency will be formed based out of Perth’s Pearce Royal Australian Air Force to coordinate the hunt for the missing plane.Hishammuddin announced that a new joint agency will be formed based out of Perth’s Pearce Royal Australian Air Force to coordinate the hunt for the missing plane.
Two ships retrieved objects Saturday, but they were described Sunday by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority as fishing equipment and “other flotsam.” Eight ships were involved in Sunday’s search.
On Friday, the operation effectively restarted in a completely different section of the southern Indian Ocean from where it had been focused. The search was moved 680 miles northeast after new analysis by investigators indicated that the aircraft had been traveling faster than previously thought and therefore would have run out of fuel much sooner.On Friday, the operation effectively restarted in a completely different section of the southern Indian Ocean from where it had been focused. The search was moved 680 miles northeast after new analysis by investigators indicated that the aircraft had been traveling faster than previously thought and therefore would have run out of fuel much sooner.
[READ: Flight 370, a mysterious “one-off,” spurs calls to modernize tracking technology][READ: Flight 370, a mysterious “one-off,” spurs calls to modernize tracking technology]
Meanwhile, 29 Chinese who had family members on the flight arrived Sunday in Kuala Lumpur seeking answers from the Malaysian government about what happened to their loved ones. Two-thirds of the 227 passengers aboard Flight 370 were Chinese, and their relatives have expressed deep frustration with Malaysian authorities since the plane disappeared.Meanwhile, 29 Chinese who had family members on the flight arrived Sunday in Kuala Lumpur seeking answers from the Malaysian government about what happened to their loved ones. Two-thirds of the 227 passengers aboard Flight 370 were Chinese, and their relatives have expressed deep frustration with Malaysian authorities since the plane disappeared.
“We have demanded that we meet with the prime minister and the transportation minister,” said Wang Chun­jiang, whose younger brother, Wang Chun­yong, was on Flight 370, the Associated Press reported. “We have questions that we would like to ask them in person.”“We have demanded that we meet with the prime minister and the transportation minister,” said Wang Chun­jiang, whose younger brother, Wang Chun­yong, was on Flight 370, the Associated Press reported. “We have questions that we would like to ask them in person.”