This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-flight-370.html

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Air Search Ends for Lost Jet, But Sea Hunt Will Expand Jet Hunt Focus Shifts From Air To Under Sea
(about 2 hours later)
SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia announced on Monday an end to the search by air for debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but he said the underwater search would be intensified and expanded.SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia announced on Monday an end to the search by air for debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, but he said the underwater search would be intensified and expanded.
“It is highly unlikely at this stage that we will find any aircraft debris on the ocean surface,” Mr. Abbott said at a news briefing in Canberra, the capital. “By this stage, 52 days into the search, most material would have become waterlogged and sunk. Therefore, we are moving from the current phase to a phase which is focused on searching the ocean floor over a much larger area.”“It is highly unlikely at this stage that we will find any aircraft debris on the ocean surface,” Mr. Abbott said at a news briefing in Canberra, the capital. “By this stage, 52 days into the search, most material would have become waterlogged and sunk. Therefore, we are moving from the current phase to a phase which is focused on searching the ocean floor over a much larger area.”
Mr. Abbott said that while the United States Navy’s Bluefin-21 submersible vehicle would continue to search the ocean floor for wreckage from the jet, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, the search coordinators were arranging to hire private contractors that would use a different type of equipment. The next phase of the search could take six to eight months, he said.Mr. Abbott said that while the United States Navy’s Bluefin-21 submersible vehicle would continue to search the ocean floor for wreckage from the jet, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, the search coordinators were arranging to hire private contractors that would use a different type of equipment. The next phase of the search could take six to eight months, he said.
“What we are doing is looking to an intensified underwater search involving different technology, in particular using specialized side-scan sonar equipment towed behind ships to scan the seabed for evidence of aircraft wreckage,” Mr. Abbott said. “While the search will be moving to a new phase in coming weeks, it certainly is not ending.” The authorities said the technology being envisioned for the new phase had advantages over the Bluefin-21, which must be recovered and its data downloaded every 20 hours. The Bluefin-21 was better suited to work with the pinger locator towed by the Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield. Towed side-scan sonar can cover a larger area, picking up imagery in a way not possible with the autonomous underwater vehicle.
The authorities said the technology being envisioned for the new phase had advantages over the Bluefin-21, which must be recovered and its data downloaded every 20 hours. The Bluefin-21 was better suited to work with the pinger locator towed by the Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield. Towed sonar can cover a larger area, picking up imagery in a way not possible with the autonomous underwater vehicle.
Mr. Abbott’s announcement followed the failure of the Bluefin-21 to find any sign of the plane’s wreckage on the seabed despite 16 deep-sea missions in a remote part of the Indian Ocean, about 1,000 miles off the coast of the state of Western Australia.Mr. Abbott’s announcement followed the failure of the Bluefin-21 to find any sign of the plane’s wreckage on the seabed despite 16 deep-sea missions in a remote part of the Indian Ocean, about 1,000 miles off the coast of the state of Western Australia.
Flight 370 veered off course on March 8 during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, for reasons that remain unknown. Satellite data later indicated that the plane had headed south, and searchers believe it crashed in the Indian Ocean.Flight 370 veered off course on March 8 during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, for reasons that remain unknown. Satellite data later indicated that the plane had headed south, and searchers believe it crashed in the Indian Ocean.
The Bluefin-21 was searching in a circle around where, on April 8, the authorities last detected what they believe to have been an acoustic ping from one of the jet’s so-called black boxes, or data recorders. No debris has been found that could be linked to the flight.
The search coordinators say the most reliable clues to the jet’s whereabouts were transmissions from the aircraft’s engines, before they ceased to operate, and the acoustic signals picked up by the pinger locator in April. Mr. Abbott said the authorities remained confident that those signals came from the jet. “We are still baffled and disappointed that we have not been able to find undersea wreckage based on those detections,” he said.
The next phase of the search, he said, will involve further consultation over the zone where the plane is believed to have hit the ocean. Experts from the United States, Malaysia, China, Britain and Australia, currently working from Kuala Lumpur, will be asked “to reconsider exactly what they think is the most likely probable impact zone based on the data we’ve got and the reflections that they have inevitably had over the last few weeks on all of this,” he said.
“Then we are going to methodically, carefully, to the very best of the ability of contemporary technology, search the entire probable impact zone,” estimated to be about 435 miles by 50 miles, Mr. Abbott said. “We will search it all. That’s obviously going to take quite a few months depending upon the weather, depending upon how quickly equipment can be deployed.”