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Australia Examines Material Washed Ashore for Link to Missing Jet Australia Examines Material Washed Ashore for Link to Missing Jet
(about 2 hours later)
SYDNEY, Australia — Investigators are examining whether material that washed ashore near the southern end of Western Australia might have a connection to the Malaysia Airlines aircraft that has been missing for a month and a half, Australian search organizers said on Wednesday. SYDNEY, Australia — Investigators are examining whether material that washed ashore near the southern end of Western Australia is connected to the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft, Australian search organizers said on Wednesday.
Since the plane disappeared on March 8, the search for it has been punctuated by sightings of possible wreckage, only for each potential find to be disproved when the objects have been recovered. The brief announcement from the Australian agency overseeing the hunt in the southern Indian Ocean gave no clues about what the newest material was or why it had piqued investigators’ curiosity. In a separate announcement, the Malaysian government said it had approved the formation of an international investigation team to assess what happened to the plane and its 239 passengers and crew members, and what lessons could be learned.
The agency, called the Joint Agency Coordination Center, said in an email that the material had turned up 10 kilometers, or 6.2 miles, east of Augusta, a township in Western Australia. Searchers have been looking for traces of the plane in waters much farther northwest. Since the plane disappeared on March 8, the search for it has been punctuated by sightings of possible wreckage in the Indian Ocean, but the recovered objects have turned out to be unrelated debris. The brief announcement from the Australian agency overseeing the hunt gave no clues about what the newest find was or why it had piqued investigators’ curiosity.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau was “examining photographs of the material to determine whether further physical analysis is required and if there is any relevance to the search of missing flight MH370,” the search center said. It added that it would release more information “if, and when, it becomes available.” The agency, called the Joint Agency Coordination Center, said in an email that the material had turned up 6.2 miles southeast of Augusta, a township in Western Australia State. Searchers have been looking for traces of the plane in waters much further northwest.
Augusta is more than 1,100 miles from the patch of ocean where a Royal Australian Navy ship, the Ocean Shield, has been operating an unmanned submersible vehicle, the Bluefin-21, which is scanning the seafloor for signs of the missing plane, and in particular the two flight recorders that are crucial to determining why the plane apparently veered so drastically off course. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau iss examining photographs of the material to determine whether further physical analysis is required and if there is any relevance to the missing Boeing 777-200, said the search center. It said it would release more information if it became available.
The plane, a Boeing 777-200, took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, en route to Beijing, but then veered off course and continued flying, according to radar data. Augusta is more than 1,100 miles from the patch of ocean where an Australian defense ship, Ocean Shield, has been operating an unmanned submersible vehicle, Bluefin-21, which is hunting the seafloor for signs of the missing plane, and in particular the two flight recorders that are crucial to determining why the plane apparently veered so drastically off course. A search in a separate stretch of ocean where planes and ships are looking for floating wreckage was suspended on Wednesday because of bad weather.
Investigators have said the best lead to the plane’s whereabouts remain four sets of signals — believed to be from beacons attached to the flight recorders — picked up on April 5 and April 8 by the Ocean Shield using a towed pinger locator. But no debris linked to the missing flight has been found, and the Bluefin-21, which is close to completing the underwater search in a circle with a six-mile radius around one of the detected pings, has found no sign of the plane. The plane took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, en route to Beijing, but then veered off course and continued flying, according to radar data. Investigators believe that it ended up in the ocean off Western Australia, where the Ocean Shield has been searching about 1,000 miles northwest of the state capital, Perth. Augusta is about 170 miles south of Perth.
At a news conference in Canberra, the Australian capital, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he remained confident that the plane’s wreckage was somewhere in the area identified by searchers, and he said the hunt there would continue. Investigators have said the best lead to the plane’s whereabouts remains four sets of signals — believed to be from beacons attached to the flight recorders — picked up on April 5 and April 8 by Ocean Shield using a towed pinger locator. But no debris has been found that can be linked to the missing plane, and the Bluefin-21, which is close to completing the underwater search in a circle with a six-mile radius around one of the detected pings, has found no evidence of the plane at the bottom of the ocean.
“The point I make is that Australia will not rest until we have done everything we humanly can to get to the bottom of this mystery,” he said. At a news conference Wednesday in Canberra, the Australian capital, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that he remained confident that the plane’s wreckage was somewhere in the area identified by searchers, and that the hunt there would continue.
“We are not going to let down the families of the 239 people who were on that plane by lightly surrendering while there is reasonable hope of finding something,” Mr. Abbott said. “If, at the end of that period, we find nothing, we are not going to abandon the search; we may well rethink the search, but we will not rest until we have done everything we can to solve this mystery.” “We are not going to let down the families of the 239 people who were on that plane by lightly surrendering while there is reasonable hope of finding something,” Mr. Abbott said. “If at the end of that period we find nothing, we are not going to abandon the search; we may well rethink the search but we will not rest until we have done everything we can to solve this mystery.”
At a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the director general of the Malaysian civil aviation authority, said the Australian search coordinators had passed on a report about the material found near Augusta. He stressed that so far no objects have been confirmed as having come from the missing jet.
Especially in the first weeks, Malaysia’s handling of the search for the plane was dogged by false leads and confusing official statements. In announcing plans for the new international investigative team at the news conference, the Malaysian defense minister and acting transportation minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, presented it as a normal step in line with international standards. But he also suggested that the move would help restore confidence in Malaysia’s efforts.
“It’s just an opportunity for all the experts that have gathered here to actually look at what we are going through, and see how that relates to the aviation landscape for the future,” Mr. Hishammuddin said. “Basically, that expert committee also gives an assurance to the people out there that Malaysia’s got nothing to hide, and at the end of the day the truth will prevail.”