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| Version 4 | Version 5 |
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| Jet Hunt Focus Shifts From Air to Under Sea | Jet Hunt Focus Shifts From Air to Under Sea |
| (4 months 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. | |
| “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. |
| 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 side-scan 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. |