[Peetwo]

Captain's Log 23.01.17: 4D, Hoody & Liow in Perth.

Courtesy the AAP via the Oz:

MH370 searchers wanted to go on

3:30pm

Australian Transport Safety Bureau staff would have liked to keep searching, saying the plane was “highly likely” in defined area.

Searchers for MH370 maintain the missing Malaysia Airlines flight is probably to the north of where they’d been looking in the southern Indian Ocean. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said last month the Boeing 777 could be within a 25,000 square kilometre area to the north of the 120,000 sq km official search zone.

But the underwater search was still called off and the last vessel, the Fugro Equator, returned to port in Western Australia overnight.

“It’s highly likely the area now defined by the experts contains the aircraft but that’s not absolutely for certain,” Australian Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Greg Hood told reporters in Perth on Monday.

Mr Hood said the ATSB would have liked to continue searching to solve the mystery and bring closure to the families of those on board, but the decision to suspend the underwater hunt was made by the Malaysian, Australian and Chinese governments.

“Everybody wants to do the right thing — everybody’s got hopes,” Mr Hood said.

“Having met a number of family members personally, they continue to have protracted and prolonged grief.

“I’m profoundly sorry for these people.” Australian transport minister Darren Chester said it was understandable relatives were disappointed to have no answers almost three years after their loved ones vanished.

“They’re appreciative of the work that’s been done but understandably, they’re disappointed and saddened by the fact we haven’t been able to find MH370,” Mr Chester said.

“The professional staff involved, the ATSB, the crew on board the Fugro Equator here today, they’re disappointed.

“It’s a disappointment I share with them.” Malaysian transport minister Dato Sri Liow Tiong said he would meet with a representative of the relatives in Perth later on Monday.

“I hope we can have a good discussion,” Mr Liow said.

He said it was expected more debris would wash ashore after about 25 pieces were collected from Africa’s east coast and it was hoped drift modelling would help narrow down the plane’s location.

The ATSB’s opinion regarding the new zone was not enough to go on, he said. “We need more,” Mr Liow said.

Three pieces have been confirmed as definitely being from MH370, another five are considered “most certainly” from the plane and the rest are still being evaluated.

“We’ll continue to work on the debris and work with all the countries concerned,” Mr Liow said.

“So we’re committed to continue with the search for the debris and from then on, we hope we can get more credible evidence for the undersea search.” Mr Hood said drift modelling became less accurate as time went on but authorities were also re-examining satellite imagery from around the time of the crash to look for clues.

AAP

 

Update 24/01/17: Liow retracts reward

Had suspected that Liow's Deputy Dog was talking out of school, now apparently that has been confirmed by Liow himself...

"The Government has not made any decision ... it was the Deputy Minister's personal view, not the Government's, we are not having any of the such decision," he said. - Reference ABC: MH370 reward offer withdrawn by Malaysian Government as search ends.

Also a bit more on Hoody's statement that the ATSB is highly confident that the aircraft is in the new 25,000 square kilometre priority zone but (stiff shit) we're are not going to look for it...  

Via the Oz today:

Malaysia scotches MH370 reward

12:00amVICTORIA LAURIE

The Malaysian government has backtracked on its offer of a reward to private search teams looking for MH370.

The Malaysian government ­yesterday backtracked on its offer of a reward of hundreds of ­thousands of dollars to private search teams seeking to solve the mystery of MH370, as the lead Australian agency revealed it wanted to keep looking for the doomed flight.

MH370 and its 239 passengers went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 nearly three years ago, and ­yesterday the last vessel searching a 120,000sq km ocean grid ­returned to Perth.

Last week the Malaysian ­government, the People’s Republic of China and the Australian government brought the $200 million underwater search to an end, leaving unsolved the world’s largest aviation mystery.

Yesterday Malaysia’s Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai ­contradicted his deputy’s promise of a reward for private searchers. Mr Liow was in Perth to thank the crew of the search vessel Fugro Equator, which returned overnight from its final few days in the search area 2600km off Western Australia’s coast.

On a visit to Henderson industrial maritime base with Australia’s Transport Minister Darren Chester, Mr Liow said Malaysia would not consider offering a reward to credible private companies searching for the aeroplane.

Last week, Malaysia’s Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi was reported as saying that the government was open to offering “millions” of Malaysian ringgit as a reward (one million ringgit is nearly $300,000 ­dollars).

“There will be cash rewards in the millions (of ringgit) for those who are able to find substantial information or evidence like the fuselage,” he said.

But Mr Liow told reporters: “It was the deputy minister’s personal view, not the government’s, we are not having any such decision.”

Instead, Mr Liow said Malaysia’s aviation authority would continue to investigate data and plane debris, “and from then on, we hope we can get more credible evidence for the undersea search.”

He said out of 25 pieces of ­debris, three pieces had been ­confirmed as being from MH370, another five were considered likely, while other pieces are still being evaluated. “We’ll continue to work on the debris and work with all the countries concerned,” Mr Liow said.

Australia’s lead agency, the Australian Transport Safety ­Bureau, was asked yesterday why a 25,000sq km area identified last month by aviation experts as a likely area for the missing Boeing 777 was not being searched. The area lies to the north of the official search zone in the southern ­Indian Ocean.

ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood said: “It’s highly likely the area now defined by the experts contains the aircraft but that’s not absolutely for certain.”

Asked why the ATSB wouldn’t expand the search area further north, he said “That’s a question for the governments.”

Mr Hood later said ATSB would have liked to continue searching to bring closure to the families.

“Everybody wants to do the right thing — everybody’s got hopes,” Mr Hood said. “Having met a number of family members personally, they continue to have protracted and prolonged grief. I’m profoundly sorry for these people.”

Mr Hood was asked whether it was time to revisit theories that one of MH370’s pilots had deliberately sabotaged the plane, piloting it to the end.

He said analysis of the wing flap suggested a rapid rate of ­descent “which is suggestive of the aircraft not being in control at the end of the flight.”

Mr Liow said his government needed “more empirical evidence before we move to the next search area”, adding: “We are thinking that there’ll be more debris washing up in a short time to come.”

 
UDB...

Hoody, Liow, Chester, Najib & Malcolm.....





MTF...P2