Trained spotters to play central role in hunt for lost plane
Print Edition
SEARCH planes scoured a remote patch of the Indian Ocean yesterday but came back empty-handed after a 10-hour mission looking for signs of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. It was a disappointing day in one of the world’s biggest aviation mysteries.
Australian officials pledged to continue the search for the two objects spotted by a satellite earlier in the week, which raised hopes that the hunt for the Boeing 777, which disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board, was nearing a breakthrough.
But Australia’s acting Prime Minister Warren Truss tamped down expectations.
“Something that was floating on the sea that long ago may no longer be floating — it may have slipped to the bottom,” he said.
“It’s also certain that any debris or other material would have moved a significant distance over that time.”
In Kuala Lumpur, where the plane took off for Beijing, Malaysia’s defense minister thanked the countries involved in the search that is stretching from Kazakhstan to the southern Indian Ocean, and said the focus remains on finding the airplane.
“This going to be a long haul,” Hishammuddin Hussein said.
The area indicated by the satellite images — about 2,500km southwest of Perth — is so remote it takes aircraft eight hours to fly there and back, leaving them with enough fuel to search only for two hours.
Yesterday, five planes, including three P-3 Orions, made the trip. While search conditions had improved from Thursday, with much better visibility, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said there were no sightings of plane debris.
Searchers relied on trained spotters scanning the ocean rather than radar because the use of radar found nothing during the search on Thursday, Australian officials said. Going forward, the search will focus more on visual sightings because civilian aircraft are being brought in to participate.
“Noting that we got no radar detections yesterday, we have replanned the search to be visual. So aircraft flying relatively low, very highly skilled and trained observers looking out of the aircraft windows and looking to see objects,” said John Young, manager of the maritime safety authority’s emergency response division.
Two Chinese aircraft are expected to arrive in Perth today, and two Japanese aircraft will arrive tomorrow, Truss said. A small flotilla of ships coming to Australia from China was still several days away.
“We are doing all we can, devoting all the resources we can and will not give up until all of the options have been exhausted,” said Truss, who is acting prime minister while Tony Abbott is in Papua New Guinea.
Experts say it is impossible to tell if the grainy satellite images of the two objects were debris from the plane. But officials called it the best lead so far in the search that began after the plane vanished over the Gulf of Thailand.
For the relatives of the 227 passengers — 154 are Chinese — hope was slipping away, said Nan Jinyan, sister-in-law of passenger Yan Ling.
“I’m prepared for the worst and I know the chances of them coming back alive are extremely small,” said Nan, one of dozens of relatives gathered at a Beijing hotel.
Abbott spoke with President Xi Jinping, whom he described as “devastated.”
“It’s about the most inaccessible spot that you could imagine, but if there is anything down there we will find it. We owe it to the families of those people to do no less,” Abbott said.
The Norwegian cargo vessel Hoegh St Petersburg is also in the area helping with the search. Haakon Svane, a spokesman for the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, said the ship and its crew of 20 Filipinos had searched a strip of ocean stretching about 100 nautical miles using binoculars and unaided eyes.
Pieces of an aircraft have been found floating for days after a crash into the ocean. Peter Marosszeky, an aviation expert at the University of New South Wales, said the plane’s wing could remain buoyant for weeks if the fuel tanks inside were empty and had not filled up with water.
The relatives of passengers met yesterday with Malaysian officials at the Beijing hotel. Attendees said they were told nothing new.
Wang Zhen, son of missing artist Wang Linshi, said there were questions about why Malaysian authorities had provided so much seemingly contradictory information. He said he still has hopes his father will be found alive, but he and other relatives are suspicious about what they are being told by the Malaysian side.
“We feel they’re hiding something from us,” Wang, who is filling his days attending briefings and watching the news for updates, said.
Malaysian authorities have not ruled out any explanation for what happened to the jet, but have said the evidence suggests it was deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca, with its communications systems disabled.
Police are considering the possibilities of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board.
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