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...and earlier this week:MH370: Chinese sonar ship to join underwater search
8 hours ago
A Chinese sonar ship is joining the search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370, Australia's deputy prime minister has said.
The Dong Hai Jiu 101, currently in Singapore, will leave for Australia on Sunday before heading out to the search area in the southern Indian Ocean.
Warren Truss said China had offered the vessel to Australia last November.
Mr Truss said the Chinese ship would be carrying a 6km towed sonar system to scan the seabed.
He said the ship took the total value of China's contribution to the search to about $14m (£9.7m).
MH370 hunt loses sonar probe to undersea volcano
"Towfish" lost to bottom of Indian Ocean forcing search vessel to return to Australia for repairs
An underwater sonar vehicle used in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane MH370 has now been lost
to the deep ocean floor after hitting an undersea volcano, Australian officials said on Monday.
The "towfish", pulled behind a search ship and fitted with survey instruments, plunged to the bottom of the remote southern Indian Ocean on Sunday.
"The towfish collided with a mud volcano which rises 2,200 metres from the sea floor resulting in the vehicle's tow cable breaking,"
the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) announced.
"The towfish and 4,500 metres of cable became separated from the vessel and are now resting on the sea floor."
Australian officials said there were no injuries to crew in Sunday's incident onboard the Fugro Discovery and it was thought that the towfish could be recovered.
The ship was Monday returning to the western Australian port of Fremantle so a replacement cable could be fitted, a journey which is expected to take until Saturday.
https://www.atsb.gov.au/mh370-pages/upd ... pdate.aspxATSB boss admits MH370 search vessels may have missed plane
MH370 SEARCH co-ordinators have revealed the missing plane could have literally slipped through the cracks in the southern Indian Ocean floor — and crews are retracing their steps to be sure.
As the unexplained disappearance of the Boeing 777 approaches its two-year anniversary on March 8, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has confirmed the possibility the plane may have been missed in areas already searched.
Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan said challenging terrain and deep fissures in the sea bed had meant they were not always able to get a “good enough sonar image”.
“We’re taking another look because the areas where we haven’t been certain are large enough to contain an aircraft — which is why we’re going over them,” said Commissioner Dolan.
“The sea floor is very rugged and complex.”
The hazards involved in the search have been highlighted in recent weeks by damage to the expensive equipment including a lost $1 million tow fish, and a broken communications pole.
Commissioner Dolan said there was still an area “two-thirds the size of Tasmania” to search, and hopes remained high the Boeing 777 would be found before the operation was completed.
“There was never a guarantee of success, but we still think there’s a high likelihood of success before we finish (in June),” he said.
Key developments this week
•Fugro Discovery departed Fremantle on 31 January 2016, having resupplied and taken on board a replacement cable for the deep tow sonar vehicle (towfish) that was separated from the vessel. The ship is expected to arrive back in the search area around 6 February 2016 .
•Fugro Equator will depart the search area today, returning to Fremantle for a scheduled resupply visit.
•Havila Harmony departed Henderson on 28 January and is expected to arrive in the search area late today.
•Dong Hai Jiu 101 departed Singapore on 31 January, and is expected to arrive in Fremantle next week.
It was discovered by an American who has been blogging about the search for MH370.
A resident on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion who last year found a wing fragment from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 said on Sunday he had come across a second possible piece from the missing plane.
Johnny Begue, who found the “flaperon” part while cleaning a beach last July, told AFP he handed over the new suspected object to police immediately after finding it last Thursday.
... no updates on that second Reunion find last week so far...Malaysia and Australia say they remain "hopeful" that flight MH370 will eventually be found, two years on from its disappearance.
The aircraft disappeared between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing on 8 March 2014 with 239 people on board.
Last year, authorities found a piece of wing on the shore of Reunion island in the Indian Ocean. It was later confirmed to be a flaperon from the missing plane.
A second suspected piece of debris was found last week in Mozambique.
It will be analysed by in Australia by the ATSB, along with representatives of the plane's manufacturer Boeing and the Malaysian investigation team advising.
Although a long way from the suggested possible crash area, both finds are consistent with prevailing ocean currents that could carry debris across the Indian Ocean.
An interim report into the search will be released by Malaysian investigators on Tuesday.
Experts following the disappearance of MH370 say it is likely that a new piece of debris found on a Mozambique beach came from the missing plane.
A reader contacted the BBC on Thursday to say he recently found the fragment on the Macaneta peninsula.
The authorities have been notified. The piece must be examined by the official investigation team in Australia.
Experts say it is consistent with where previous pieces of debris from the missing plane have been found.
The reader took two photographs of the item on 22 May, and sent them to the BBC after reading a story on Thursday about other debris finds in the region.
He said the pieces were "reasonably light, did not have metal on the outside, and looked extremely similar to photos posted on the internet of other pieces of debris from aeroplanes".
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36386122Don Thompson, a British engineer who is part of an informal international group investigating MH370, said the piece found by the reader "does look like it's part of Boeing 777", most like a leading or trailing edge closing panel from the wing or tail.
"It's in the right area where debris is expected to wash up," he told the BBC, saying it indicated the accuracy of drift models which show how debris might have moved from the crash site.
But he said such discoveries were "getting pretty routine", and more finds were likely to be made public.
MH370 search: New debris find 'of interest'
26 May 2016
Three newly found pieces of debris are "of interest" in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australia's transport minister says.
Darren Chester said two of the fragments were found in Mauritius, with another in Mozambique.
They are expected to be brought to Australia to be examined by experts.
"The Malaysian government is yet to take custody of the items, however, as with previous items, officials are arranging collection," he said.
But countries have agreed that in the absence of "credible new information" the search is expected to end by July or August this year.
"We've covered a fairly significant proportion of our total search area without finding the aircraft so we have to start considering the alternatives," Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the ATSB, has said.
"But we've still got 15,000 sq km to go, which is a big chunk. So it's not as though we've given up."
Monster waves grind MH370 search to a halt as completion date gets pushed back
THE end to the search for MH370 has been put back to August as dreadful weather creates havoc for the ships tasked to find the missing plane.
It has now been almost a month since the ships have been able to use sensitive equipment to scour the 120,000 square kilometre search zone in the Southern Indian Ocean.
The outlook is for more bad weather, with little activity expected to be possible in the coming week.
In the last week, waves of 18.2 metres forced Fugro Discovery out of the area.
From the waveline, the ship is 20-metres to the tip of the mast creating a terrifying scenario for crew.
Although the vessel was not damaged, a decision was made to retreat to the north because of the potential impact of the conditions on crew and their ability to work effectively.
Chinese vessel Dong Hai Jiu 101 also remains on weather standby and Fugro Equator has been carrying out bathymetric surveys while it waits for the seas to calm.
https://www.atsb.gov.au/mh370-pages/upd ... al-update/If the aircraft and its black box recorders are not found when the current search is complete, the Australian, Malaysian and Chinese Governments have agreed not to expand the operation without new evidence.
MH370 search: New debris found on Madagascar beach
Also on Thursday, an ATSB spokeswoman said they were investigating whether debris found on Kangaroo Island in South Australia may have come from MH370.
Footage broadcast on Australia's Channel Seven showed white wreckage that included the words 'Caution No Step'.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/plane-debri ... pftdf.htmlDebris has been found on Kangaroo Island off South Australia
Experts have said they believe it could be wreckage from a plane
If the debris is from MH370 it will firm belief it went down in search zone
An oceanographer said the find is consistent with ocean drift from zone
A piece of debris found on a remote south Australian beach is believed to be from an aircraft, experts say, raising the possibility it could be from missing MH370.
The shattered grey piece of wreckage, complete with internal honeycombing, was found on an isolated beach on the south eastern corner of Kangaroo Island, lying off the South Australian coast.
Until now, pieces that are 'almost certainly' from the missing Boeing 777 jet have been discovered only off the coast of South Africa and nearby islands, according to experts.
The debris found by local resident Samuel Armstrong on Kangaroo Island bears the stencilled words: 'Caution. No Step.'
JUNE 11, 2016
The search for Malaysia Airlines’ missing Flight 370 on the floor of the southern Indian Ocean is nearing an end with no sign of the plane in the area that investigators had concluded it most likely went down, prompting a last-ditch reassessment of assumptions used to calculate its final descent and draw the search zone.
At issue are estimates of how far the plane may have traveled after it ran out of fuel, notably whether it followed a tight or broad spiral down as it fell or glided toward the ocean, officials said.
“We’re really doing further work to test our assumption about the end of flight, which defines our search area,” said Martin Dolan, the chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
“It’s really testing to make sure we haven’t missed anything, and that our assumptions remain valid.”
The failure to find any wreckage in the area also raises the possibility that the plane began descending earlier,
or perhaps changed course in an attempt at an emergency landing at sea,
though investigators have discounted these outcomes as inconsistent with other evidence.
Investigators are now asking whether they have been looking in the right place.
They are reconsidering an assumption that when the plane’s engines ran dry,
the aircraft spiraled into the sea without traveling a horizontal distance of more than 10 nautical miles — a relatively tight spiral.
Analysts at Boeing and elsewhere have been re-examining their models of how the aircraft operating under autopilot might have responded to an initial loss of power
on one side of the aircraft, and, up to 15 minutes later, on both sides.
The simulations assume the right engine ran out of fuel first,
because over its years of service that engine on the aircraft had
tended to burn slightly more fuel than the left engine,
according to records from Rolls-Royce, the engines’ manufacturer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/world ... .html?_r=0But Duncan Steel, a scientist on a panel of experts that has advised the Australian government,
said the arc might have been drawn too far south.
Investigators have assumed the plane was at cruising altitude when it sent its last signal,
he said,
but if the plane had started descending earlier as it ran low on fuel,
it would have covered less distance before it hit the ocean.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/missing-mh370- ... ek-1570085MH370 Operational Search Update— 13 July 2016
Key developments this week
Fugro Discovery has undergone maintenance in Fremantle and is en route to the search area.
Fugro Equator is conducting underwater search operations and bathymetry as weather and sea conditions allow.
Dong Hai Jiu 101 is currently on weather stand by and will conduct underwater search operations as weather and sea conditions allow.
Ongoing poor weather conditions have severely impacted search operations and resulted in delays to search operations of around 6–8 weeks. Since the onset of poor conditions associated with winter weather, progress has slowed with only a minimal area searched during this time.
In the event of further poor weather, or delays as a result of unforeseeable problems such as equipment failure or crew incapacity, searching the entire 120,000 square kilometre search area may continue well beyond the winter months.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36791241The tripartite transport ministers meeting on the search for missing Malaysia Airline MH370 is scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur on 18 and 19 July.
The meeting is aimed at setting out plans on the future of the search for MH370.
A tripartitie meeting involving top-level officials from Malaysia, China and Australia was held in Kuala Lumpur on 20 and 21 June.
However, the outcome of the meeting was not made public,
leaving family members of othose on board the missing plane no closer to finding out what will happen to search operations once the designated sea bed area has been scoured.
MH370 relatives' anger at 'ignored' debris
8 hours ago
Families of passengers from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 have told the BBC that Malaysian authorities seem to be ignoring possible new evidence.
Two trips to Madagascar to pick up what might be debris from the plane have been cancelled at the last minute, according to the man that found them.
The potential clues have been left untouched for weeks, with no prospect of them being gathered and examined.
American Blaine Gibson sold the family home to fund his own search for parts of MH370. Having found one piece in Mozambique that investigators say is "almost certainly" from the plane, he travelled to Madagascar where he uncovered more potential evidence.
Blaine says a Malaysian investigator was initially due to fly to Madagascar to retrieve the debris on 16 June. That was then changed to 21 June. A press conference was lined up, then the trip was cancelled at the last minute.
Blaine even offered to take the finds to Malaysia himself but says his offer was turned down.
The BBC contacted both the Malaysian authorities and ICAO, but was unable to get a response.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36863527The MH370 Ministerial Tripartite Meeting released their joint communique on Jul 22nd 2016 stating:
MH370: Search for missing plane to be suspended not shut down
2 hours ago
The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be suspended rather than shut down if the plane is not found in the current search area, officials say.
China, Malaysia and Australia had previously agreed to end the search in the southern Indian Ocean if no "credible new information" was found.
The plane, with 239 passengers and crew, disappeared in March 2014.
Many of their relatives have long pleaded with authorities for the search to continue until the plane is found.
The announcement came after a meeting of ministers from the three countries in Malaysia in which they acknowledged that with less than 10,000 square kilometres of the search area remaining "the likelihood of finding the aircraft is fading".
"In the absence of new credible evidence, Malaysia, Australia and China have collectively agreed to suspend the search upon completion of the 120,000-km search," Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said at a news conference held after the meeting.
"I must emphasise that this does not mean we are giving up on the search for MH370," he added.
There is little detail about the circumstances under which a search might be resumed.
More than 110,000 sq km of the seafloor has already been searched, but poor weather caused delays to the search operation in recent weeks, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said earlier this month.
The search was initially expected to be complete by July or August of this year, but the JACC said it could take longer if there is more bad weather or equipment failure.
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