[Peetwo]

MH370 4th anniversary interim statement etc. -

Via News.com.au:

New Ocean Infinity Search for MH370 encountering big problems

THE latest hi-tech, multimillion-dollar search for MH370 is floundering in the depths of the Indian Ocean, raising fresh fears the missing aeroplane will never be found.

Staff writers, AP
News Corp Australia Network MARCH 8, 20187:01PM


The search for MH370 has encountered unexpected problems. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

IT’S 33 days and counting.

And as the latest search for MH370 struggles to locate the missing aircraft, fears are again growing the missing aircraft will never be found.

Ocean Infinity’s search with their 65-man vessel Seabed Constructor began their search amid much optimism, but exactly four years after the plane went down the latest search of the southern Indian Ocean has revealed nothing after 16,000sq km of the 25,000sq km area.

It was previously identified by an Australian Oceanographer as the “likely” resting place of the aircraft.

RELATED: Wreck Hunter’s controversial MH370 theory


One of Ocean Infinity’s autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) being deployed at sea. Picture: AFP


The New Straits Times reported those involved in the search are still optimistic about finding the plane but have encountered a number of unexpected problems thus far.

The Royal Malaysia Navy has two officers Azmi Rosedee and Adbul Halim Ahmad Nordin on board the Seabed Constructor, who send daily updates back to Kuala Lumpur on the search’s progress.

Those reports have revealed the struggles of the Norwegian search ship while enduring massive seas including 15m waves.

“It’s been more than 30 days now, but the search team remains optimistic,” Rosedee and Nordin said in written interview with the New Straits Times.

“We are giving our utmost to find the plane.

“We have gone through a number of rough days ... days which we would not have been able to survive without having perseverance and a strong will.

“Operations continue even when the sea is rough ... but it makes it difficult for us to deploy and recover the AUVs. This slows us down.



Relative of passengers on board MH370 have a moment of silence during the Day of Remembrance event in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month. Picture: AP


“Aside from that, the seabed of the search areas is hilly and uneven. This also disrupts the AUV’s capability to thoroughly sweep the areas.

“When this happens, the team has to send the AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) down again to areas that were not swept, or ‘painted’, by the side-scan sonar.

This is to ensure that the whole radius is covered.”

Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 vanished from radar en route from Kuala Lumpur to ­Beijing on March 8, 2014. No distress signal or message was sent and all 239 passengers and crew on the Boeing 777 are presumed dead.

The aircraft is believed to have made a radical change of course less than an hour after it took off and crashed in the ocean off Western Australia six hours later.

NEW MH370 SEARCH AREA SUGGESTED

In January an Australian oceanographer at the CSIRO suggested a new search area for MH370, where the Ocean Infinity vessel has focused its efforts.

Dr David Griffin, an Australian oceanographer at the CSIRO, has told the ABC that the missing plane could only be 35 degrees south in the southern Indian Ocean.

“The oceanographic reason for why 35 [degrees south] is more likely than say 34, or 33, or 32, is that at all those latitudes the current is going to the east,” he said.

“So if the crash had been in any of those latitudes then there’d be a high chance of at least one or two things turning up in Australia. Whereas there’ve been 20 or 30 or so items turned up in Africa, and not a single one come to Australia.

“Once you start looking in the vicinity of 36 to 32, then 35 is the only option.”

His claim that the plane could be at this location comes as Australian investigators believe there were five different autopilot control modes MH370 could have been on when it plunged into the ocean.

Calculations from four of those settings lead to a location 36-39 degrees south or further north at 33-34 degrees south.

But according to the ABC, a source close to the investigation said only one of the five autopilot settings — constant magnetic heading (CMH) — would lead to a crash site at 35 degrees south, where the ocean current was moving towards Africa.

This would explain why most of the debris believed to be from the MH370 flight has been recovered off the African coast in places like Mauritius, Reunion Island, Tanzania and Mozambique.

None of the debris has been found washed up near or on Australian shores.

The claim comes after the Australian Transport Safety Bureau released a report that narrowed the search zone for the missing plane down to an area half the size of Melbourne in August last year.

The report placed the most likely location of the aircraft “with unprecedented precision and certainty” at 35.6°S, 92.8°E — in between Western Australia and Madagascar.



Ocean Infinity's Seabed Constructor. Picture: Supplied


MILLIONS OFFERED TO FIND MH370

Malaysia’s government has vowed to pay US company Ocean Infinity up to $70 million if it can find the wreckage or black boxes of MH370 within three months

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said there was an 85 per cent chance of finding the debris in a new 25,000 square kilometre area — roughly the size of Melbourne — identified by experts.

The government signed a “no cure, no fee” deal with the Houston, Texas-based company to resume the hunt for the plane, a year after the official search by Malaysia, Australia and China in the southern Indian Ocean was called off.

“The primary mission by Ocean Infinity is to identify the location of the wreckage and/or both of the flight recorders ... and present a considerable and credible evidence to confirm the exact location of the two main items,” he told a news conference.

If the mission is successful within three months, payment will be made based on the size of the area searched.


HMAS Perth searches for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. Picture: Australian Defence/AFP


Liow said the government will pay Ocean Infinity $20 million for 5,000 square kilometres of a successful search, $30 million for 15,000 square kilometres, $50 million for 25,000 square kilometres and $70 million if the plane or recorders are found beyond the identified area.

Ocean Infinity Chief Executive Oliver Plunkett said the search vessel Seabed Constuctor, has eight autonomous underwater vehicles, which are drones fitted with hi-tech cameras, sonars and sensors dispatched to map the seabed at a faster pace. Plunkett said the underwater drones can cover 1,200 square kilometres a day and complete the 25,000 square kilometres within a month.

“We have a realistic prospect of finding it,” he said in January.

“While there can be no guarantees of locating the aircraft, we believe our system of multiple autonomous vehicles working simultaneously is well suited to the task at hand.”

The official search was extremely difficult because no transmissions were received from the aircraft after its first 38 minutes of flight. Systems designed to automatically transmit the flight’s position failed to work after this point, said a final report from Australian Transport Safety Board last January.

“I feel very happy but at the same time very panicky whether it can be found or not. Now it’s back to four years ago where we have to wait everyday (to find out) whether debris can be found,” said Shin Kok Chau, whose wife Tan Ser Kuin was a flight attendant on MH370.

Underwater wreck hunter David Mearns said the new search takes into account oceanographic models used to drastically narrow the possible locations of the crash and deploys state-of-the art underwater vehicles that will allow the company to cover far more seabed at a faster pace.

“There are no guarantees in a search of this type. However, notwithstanding that uncertainty, this upcoming search is the best chance yet that the aircraft wreckage will be found,” he said.

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Via NST:


Fourth MH370 Interim Statement in full



MH370 Investigation Head Datuk Kok Soo Chon announces MH370's interim report on TV1 in conjunction with the 4th anniversary of the mysterious disappearance of MH370. (NSTP/MOHD YUSNI ARIFFIN)

By NST - March 8, 2018 @ 4:37pm

The following is the full statement by The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370 on ongoing efforts to locate the ill-fated Boeing 777 aircraft.

1. This 4th Interim Statement has been prepared under Chapter 6, paragraph 6 of Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation (ICAO Annex 13), to provide information on the progress of the investigation on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, registered as 9M-MRO pending the completion of the Safety Report as required under ICAO Annex 13.

2. The Beijing-bound international scheduled passenger flight, with a total of 239 persons (227 passengers and 12 crew) on board, departed KL International Airport (KLIA) at 1642 UTC on 07 March 2014 [0042 MYT on 08 March 2014]. Less than 40 minutes after take-off, communications with the aircraft was lost after passing waypoint IGARI.

3. As a Contracting State of ICAO and in accordance with ICAO Annex 13 and under Regulation 126(1) of the Malaysian Civil Aviation Regulations 1996 (MCAR), on 25 April 2014, Malaysia established an independent international Air Accident Investigation Team, known as ‘The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370’ (the “Team”) to investigate the disappearance of flight MH370. The Team, headed by the Investigator-in Charge, comprises 19 Malaysians and 7 Accredited Representatives of 7 safety investigation authorities from 7 countries.

4. On 08 March 2015, the 1st Interim Statement and the Factual Information on the Safety Investigation for MH370 were released to the public on the first anniversary of the disappearance of MH370. Subsequent Interim Statements were released on 08 March 2016 and 08 March 2017.

5. Aircraft debris possibly from MH370 are still being discovered around the southeastern coast of the African continent and the adjacent islands. An updated summary of the debris recovered was published on 30 April 2017 together with the debris examination reports. These are available on the Ministry of Transport (MOT) Malaysia and the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia (KKMM) websites (the links to the websites are provided in footnote 6 below).

6. At the time of writing, as reported in the Interim Statement released in 2017, three items of debris remain as being confirmed from MH370, i.e., the right flaperon, a part of the right outboard flap and a section of the left outboard flap. A few other pieces of debris were determined to be almost certain from MH370 including some cabin interior items. There is continuing activity to retrieve and examine any new debris that is discovered.

7. Official search activities coordinated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau were suspended on 17 January 2017. On 03 October 2017, the ATSB published a report detailing the history of the search and made conclusions and recommendations relating to the search activities. The ATSB search report is separate and distinct from the Safety Report required under ICAO Annex 13.

8. To date, the main wreckage of MH370 has not been found. On 10 January 2018, the Malaysian Government entered into an agreement with Ocean Infinity to conduct a 90-day underwater search in an area that is considered the most likely location for the wreckage.

9. The publication of the detailed investigation report, that is the Safety Report, based on currently available information has been suspended pending the outcome of the latest search effort, since any new evidence uncovered is likely to significantly affect the investigation. In the event that the aircraft is found, the Team will conduct further investigation. If the aircraft is not found and a decision is made to discontinue the search, the Team will resume the completion of the report and release it in the months ahead.

MTF...P2