KULALA LUMPUR: The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 could take years, a U.S. Naval Officer suggested on Sunday, as search and rescue officials raced to locate the plane’s black box recorder days before its batteries are set to die.
Ten ships and as many aircraft are searching a massive area in the Indian Ocean west of Perth, trying again to find some trace of the aircraft, which went missing more than three weeks ago and is presumed to have crashed in one of the most remote areas on the planet.
An Australian navy ship, the Ocean Shield, was fitted with a sophisticated U.S. black box locator and an underwater drone on Sunday, and is expected to leave port and join the search later in the day.
But U.S. Navy Captain Mark Matthews, who is in charge of the U.S. Towed Pinger Locator (TPL), told journalists at Stirling Naval Base near Perth that the lack of information about where the plane went down seriously hampers the ability to find it.
“Right now the search area is basically the size of the Indian Ocean, which would take an untenable amount of time to search,” he said.
“If you compare this to Air France flight 447, we had much better positional information of where that aircraft went into the water,” he said, referring to a plane that crashed in 2009 near Brazil and which took more than two years to find.
Numerous objects have been spotted in the two days since Australian authorities moved the search 1,100 km (685 miles) after new analysis of radar and satellite data concluded the Boeing 777 travelled faster and for a shorter distance after vanishing from civilian radar screens on March 8. None has been confirmed as coming from Flight MH370.
Australia, which is coordinating the search in the southern Indian Ocean, said it had established a new body to oversee the investigation and issued countries involved in the search a set of protocols to abide by should any wreckage be found.
Malaysia says the plane, which disappeared less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, was likely diverted deliberately. Investigators have determined no apparent motive or other red flags among the 227 passengers or the 12 crew.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said aircraft from China, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the United States would continue the search.
Both a Chinese ship and an Australian navy vessel have picked up objects but nothing has been linked to Flight MH370.
The search has involved unprecedented cooperation between more than two dozen countries and 60 aircraft and ships but has also been hampered by regional rivalries and an apparent reluctance to share potentially crucial information due to security concerns.
This week, Australia issued a set of rules and guidelines to all parties involved in the search, giving Malaysia authority over the investigation of any debris to be conducted on Australian soil, a spokeswoman at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Reuters.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Sunday appointed a former chief of its defense forces, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, to lead a new Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC). (Reuters)
Relatives protest; slam Malaysian Government
KUALA LUMPUR: As the search for the wreckage of the crashed Malaysian jet in the Indian Ocean failed to yield any breakthrough, anguished relatives of Chinese passengers aboard the ill-fated plane today demanded that Malaysia must apologise for its misleading statements.
Some 29 family members from China arrived in Kuala Lumpur and held a news conference at their hotel, imploring officials to be more transparent.
“We want evidence, we want truth and we want our family,” said Jiang Hui, the families’ designated representative.
The crowd chanted the same words.
He also asked Malaysia to apologise for releasing confusing information and for announcing on March 24 that the plane had crashed without “direct evidence”.
The Beijing-bound jetliner – carrying 239 people, including five Indians, an Indo-Canadian and 154 Chinese nationals – had vanished after taking off from Kuala Lumpur and crashed in the remote southern Indian Ocean. (Agencies)