[aussie500]

Very interesting Aussie & Ventus...

..I find it hard to believe the equipment on a P3 Orion could not detect that lot, and there was a nice white object bobbing up to get their attention...

The P3 Orions are fitted with an ELTA SAR/ISAR radar, which I believe were originally designed as a (air to air &/or air to surface) airborne combat & fire control radar but then modified in the Orion for maritime surveillance purposes. These radar can detect reflective targets as small as a 10 ft tinny at a distance of 20-30nm depending on sea conditions.
 
The P3 is also equipped with a FLIR that along with providing infra-red heat signature imagery, can also provide magnification imagery to a range of between 10-20nm. The FLIR is also capable of locking on a target and will maintain visual contact with the target throughout all aircraft manoeuvres (other than rolling inverted) as it is mounted on a 360 degree rotational turret.
  


Generally in all SAR operations it is SOP to video record all targets visually identified & then confirmed by the FLIR operator or AMC. Therefore Aussie it should be possible to request via FOI those FLIR recordings of all visually sighted targets from the AMSA co-ordinated SIO MH370 surface search.


MTF...P2

Yes will If I go though and do another FOI request to finally corner them, I would need to start a kickstarter campaign to raise the funds. There is no way I could afford to do another FOI request by myself. And they would want a fortune for all I would ask for, considering what the Defence Department wanted for just some fuzzy photos packed up as pdfs. I would want everything, images, GPS info, maps, flight plans, video, radar detection's or what ever that tail thing can detect, sat imagery they might have, at full size as it was given to them. And especially the route HMAS Success took through that southern search area, the proper track as marked out on ship, not the AIS data. She seems to have missed a few turns after her stop over on the 25th, I want to know how close she came to my area on her way back, she never went straight north. I would want the info for the entire search area, even before they officially started searching it, and I would try and include even after they officially stopped the surface search.

And I would want info from AMSA, on search maps, flight plans, ship tracks, maps of who was searching where, drift data, and any images the civilian aircraft they hired might have managed to get. As well as all the reports done for the debris sightings, what was fished up and any analysis of their photos or items

Then there would be all the reports/analysis, locations and photographs the Federal Police might have for all the stuff handed in here in Australia, especially for the bit of debris washed up in WA that the ATSB gave me the run around when I tried to get the photos through FOI .

We also still need the American aerial search photo's, and although the IG group got the NZ ones, it is difficult to get all of them or even the metadata for them.

And then I would need expert help to make sure I never skipped any conceivable small details in the request, did not leave them any loop holes, and made sure I actually got everything possible to get the best chance of giving someone else a good location to look, that they could actually believe because we has some proof they could understand. ATSB would be long finished by then. Not that the ATSB ever had any plans of looking any where but that wretched and MH370 empty 7th arc. They might wander a bit further out from it, but they never had any intention of letting it go, might risk running into something they might have to fish up.