10 years on and Malaysian Flight 370 still has to be solved

[Anthea]

Seems that nobody know where the plane was headed or where it could have gone down or landed

Neither Java nor Xmas Island are close. Xmas Island may have been the closest destination (next to Cocos Islands), but in absolute terms, it was not close. Xmas Island would have been several hours away by the time the sun started to rise. Cocos Island would have been the only conceivable destination.

However, one important thing to keep in mind is that if the passengers successfully gained access to the cockpit, it would have been virtually impossible for them to determine where they were and where the closest diversion airport was located. The only thing a passenger would have seen would have been water all around them. In addition, they probably were out of radio range.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... 41#menu252

[Anthea]

BBC News Asia

Flight MH370: Malaysia releases raw satellite data



The Malaysian government has released the raw data used to determine that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.

The data was first released to relatives of passengers, who have been asking for greater transparency, before copies were also provided to media.

The document released on Tuesday comprises 47 pages of data, plus notes, from British firm Inmarsat.

Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

There were 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on board. No trace of the aircraft has been found, nor any reason for its disappearance.

The satellite data released includes the hourly "handshakes" between the plane and a communications satellite that led investigators to conclude that the plane ended its journey far off Australia.

"Inmarsat and the DCA have been working for the release of the data communication logs and the technical description of the analysis," Malaysia's civil aviation authority said in a statement.

BBC science correspondent Jonathan Amos says although the data is now open for scrutiny, it would be a surprise if something new turns up.

Independent teams have already assessed it and come to the same conclusion: MH370 lies somewhere far off the coast of western Australia, he says.

American Sarah Bajc, the partner of one of the passengers, told Reuters news agency that she did not think it would take this long for the data to be released.

"When we first asked for the data it was more than two months ago. I never dreamed it would be such an obstacle to overcome," she told Reuters news agency from Beijing.

Meanwhile, a sea-bed search for the missing plane is continuing in waters far west of the Australian city of Perth.

The robotic submarine Bluefin-21, on loan from the US, is still being operated off the Australian vessel Ocean Shield.

The Bluefin-21, which can identify objects by creating a sonar map of the sea floor, restarted its mission last week after experiencing technical problems.

It is expected to leave the search area on Wednesday and return to base on 31 May, said a previous statement from Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre, which is leading the search.

The Bluefin-21 completed the initial search of the area where acoustic signals thought to be from flight recorders were heard without finding anything concrete.

The Australian government is now preparing for a fresh deep-sea search using commercially-contracted equipment.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27576409

[Anthea]

BBC News Asia

Malaysia missing MH370 plane: 'Ping area' ruled out

The area where acoustic signals thought linked to the missing Malaysian plane were detected can now be ruled out as the final resting place of flight MH370, Australian officials say.

The Bluefin-21 submersible robot had finished its search of the area and found nothing, they said.

Efforts would now focus on reviewing search data, surveying the sea floor and bringing in specialist equipment.

Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Using satellite data, officials have concluded that the airliner, which had 239 people on board, ended its journey in the Indian Ocean, north-west of the Australian city of Perth.

No trace of the plane has been found and there is no explanation for its disappearance.
'Discounted'

Four pings that officials believed could be from the missing plane's "black box" flight recorders were heard by search teams using a towed pinger locator device.

These pings were used to define the area for the sea-floor search, conducted by the Bluefin-21. It had scoured over 850 sq km of the ocean floor, JACC said.



The depth numbers in the map are estimates, with 95% of the view built from satellite altimetry data


The towed pinger locator was deployed in an area defined by satellite data from the missing plane


After the pinger locator heard signals, the robot submersible Bluefin-21 was deployed

"Yesterday afternoon, Bluefin-21 completed its last mission searching the remaining areas in the vicinity of the acoustic signals detected in early April by the towed pinger locator," a statement from the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre (JACC) said.

"The data collected on yesterday's mission has been analysed. As a result, the JACC can advise that no signs of aircraft debris have been found by the autonomous underwater vehicle since it joined the search effort.

"The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has advised that the search in the vicinity of the acoustic detections can now be considered complete and in its professional judgement, the area can now be discounted as the final resting place of MH370."

Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said the search had been based on "the best information available at the time".

The statement came hours after a US Navy official told CNN that the acoustic signals probably came from some other man-made source.

Jonathan Amos, BBC News science correspondent

The failure of the autonomous sub Bluefin-21 to find any wreckage in the ping search zone is a hammer blow to the families. It's also a sharp reminder to everyone of just how difficult this whole exercise will be.

Were the pings real or were they simply spurious, a misinterpretation of sound in what is already a very noisy environment? The investigating teams will review again all their data. They will not jump to immediate conclusions. The water column can do strange things with sound, sending it in unexpected directions. The teams will be mindful also that the Bluefin-21 was at times operating beyond its qualified limits.

The authorities have now recognised the need to make a proper bathymetric (depth) survey of the wider search zone - some 60,000 sq km in area.

It will take at least three months, but once they know precisely the shape and depth of the sea bed they can then better choose the most appropriate vehicles to continue the underwater sweep. Wreckage could be in a ravine, covered by shifted sediment. Without the right tools, the job of finding MH370 will be that much harder.

"Our best theory at this point is that [the pings were] likely some sound produced by the ship... or within the electronics of the towed pinger locator," Michael Dean, the US Navy's deputy director of ocean engineering, told the US broadcaster.

"Always your fear any time you put electronic equipment in the water is that if any water gets in and grounds or shorts something out, that you could start producing sound," Mr Dean said.

A US Navy spokesmen subsequently described his comments as "speculative and premature".

In its statement, JACC said an expert working group would continue to review and refine existing data to better define a search area for the missing plane.

A Chinese ship had already begun mapping an area of ocean floor in a survey process that was expected to take three months.

Meanwhile, the ATSB would soon seek bids from commercial contractors for the specialist equipment needed for the underwater search - a process expected to begin in August, JACC said.

Link to Article & Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27615173

[Anthea]

MH370: Missing Malaysian Airlines 'Not Where Search Was Looking'

'Pings' that led authorities to believe MH370 had crashed in this area could have come from their own ships, the official admitted

Anthea: I think I am in shock that these so-called specilists could make such a stupid mistake

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/05 ... f=uk&ir=UK

[Anthea]

This story is all over the internet from sites all over the world

All those poor families originally waiting and hoping - then just needing closure - my heart goes out to them all

All those weeks - all the wasted money and resources

[Anthea]

[quote]Update on MH370 Search

Media Release
29 May 2014—pm

Yesterday afternoon, Bluefin-21 completed its last mission searching the remaining areas in the vicinity of the acoustic signals detected in early April by the Towed Pinger Locator deployed from ADV Ocean Shield, within its depth operating limits.

The data collected on yesterday's mission has been analysed. As a result, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre can advise that no signs of aircraft debris have been found by the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle since it joined the search effort.

Since Bluefin-21 has been involved in the search, it has scoured over 850 square kilometres of the ocean floor looking for signs of the missing aircraft.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has advised that the search in the vicinity of the acoustic detections can now be considered complete and in its professional judgement, the area can now be discounted as the final resting place of MH370.

Ocean Shield departed the search area last night and is expected to arrive at Fleet Base West on Saturday.

As advised by the Australian Deputy Prime Minister on 5 May 2014, the search for MH370 continues and now involves three major stages:
◾reviewing all existing information and analysis to define a search zone of up to 60,000 square kilometres along the arc in the southern Indian Ocean;
◾conducting a bathymetric survey to map the sea floor in the defined search area; and
◾acquiring the specialist services required for a comprehensive search of the sea floor in that area.

The expert satellite working group continues to review and refine complex analyses of radar and satellite data and aircraft performance data to determine where the aircraft most likely entered the water. The findings of the review will be made public in due course.

The Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen has already begun conducting the bathymetric survey—or mapping of the ocean floor—of the areas provided by the ATSB. Its operations are being supported by the Chinese ship Haixun 01 and Malaysian vessel Bunga Mas 6 which are assisting with transporting the survey data to Fremantle weekly for further processing by Geoscience Australia. A contracted survey vessel will join the Zhu Kezhen in June.

The bathymetric survey is expected to take about three months. Knowing the seafloor terrain is crucial to enabling the subsequent underwater search.

The underwater search will aim to locate the aircraft and any evidence (such as aircraft debris and flight recorders) to assist with the Malaysian investigation of the disappearance of MH370.

It is anticipated that this component of the search will begin in August and take up to 12 months.

The ATSB will shortly release a formal request for tender to source the capability to undertake the underwater search. A single prime contractor will be chosen to bring together and manage the expertise, equipment and vessels to carry out the search.

The request for tender will be done via AusTender, the Australian Government Tender System: http://www.tenders.gov.au[/quote

Source: http://www.jacc.gov.au/media/releases/2 ... mr048.aspx]

[Anthea]

They make believe that it is for the families they do all this, but it is more just their phobia of leaving anything unexplained than anything else driving this search. Now *SHOCK/HORROR* we find out they are so desperate to find it that they interpret anything as being a sign. Much like the team of Finding Bigfoot hear/see bigfoot whenever they look into the darkness, regardless of whether there is or not.

As I said many parts ago. They are spending good money after bad on a futile goal. Sure they may one day find a tiny portion of the wreckage but they will never adequately find out what happened. Mother Nature will already have made sure that all Souls on Board are recycled back into the ecosystem they crashed into, so no point in that regard too. The longer they draw this out the harder for families it is.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... 89#menu227

[Anthea]

So if you do not receive an official claim of responsibility you conclude that no declared motive proves that there was no deliberate act!

By extension, In the future unclaimed terrorist acts will be declared not to have taken place?

I believe that work remains to be done to discriminate between different classes of scenarios:
- a deliberate act, possibly but not necessarily involving the crew under duress or not;
- an accidental event, compounded or not by subsequent crew actions, that caused the a/c to fly autonomously;
- a combination of the two whereby a deliberate act caused an accidental event at some later time.

In all of this there are two distinct possibilities ...
One:
Whatever has happened is explainable in 'normal' common terms; the kind of possible or plausible event that has been discussed here ad nauseam.
The only thing is, it is all a bit mysterious but otherwise reasonably straight forward.
(And of course very tragic for the people directly involved; we feel for them.)

Two:
We may be faced and dealing with technologies (weapons) that are completely unknown (as yet) to the public and which, heavens forbid, may have been used in this case.

Be it as a demonstration or for whatever other purpose. Only governments at the highest levels would know.

If, and this is a gigantic IF, ...if that were the case, this incident would have been carried out by agencies or entities for whom the falsification of satellite data and radar images or the silence of key personnel would certainly be an item on the "To be Considered" list but would otherwise not be a problem.

Let's hope we haven't yet reached this point in our 'oh so sophisticated and highly technical world'

A truly frightening thought

It seems pretty clear, somehow, that the aircraft is not meant to be found, although, the governments involved may well have been told exactly what has happened. So why don't they react, ...do something?
Maybe it is because they have been told not to, they are being held to severe ransom. The loss of flight MH370 is one thing. If the agency behind this, whoever it is, is capable to make just one aircraft disappear, they are probably also capable of a lot more; and the governments know this.

Of course, if any of this were to be true, it would open one almighty can of worms.
Unfortunately, we cannot discard that possibility; there are precedents for this level of evil and foul play.


In all of this there are probably two aspects ....
One is, whatever happened was wholly and solely from on board the aircraft; i.e. without outside help.
That the authorities did not react as they should have is coincidence; and that made it all worse.
The possibilities under this aspect have been discussed, ad nauseam, on theses threads and so far that didn't get us very far.

Another aspect is much less palatable, there could be much more to this incident than meets the eye; there were outside agencies involved.
This would explain a lot of the statements, retractions and behaviour by the authorities.
The world is no longer an innocent place..!

[Anthea]

BBC News Asia

Malaysian plane MH370: families get $50,000 payments



The families of passengers on the missing Malaysian passenger plane have begun to receive initial compensation payments of $50,000 (£30,000).

So far six Malaysian families and one Chinese family have received the money, and insurers are assessing the claims of 40 more Chinese families.

Relatives of all 239 missing passengers can claim up to $175,000 each.

Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. No trace of the plane has been found.

Malaysian deputy foreign minister Hamzah Zainudin stressed that the government has not yet declared the plane lost.

"When we talk about the full payment, we have to wait until we announce the issue on the tragedy MH370 is over," he said.

Malaysia Airlines' insurer, a consortium led by Germany's Allianz, is making the payments.

Many of the relatives also refuse to accept that their relatives may be dead.

A group of families has joined together to raise $5m (£2.9m) to investigate the plane's disappearance and encourage anyone who might have information to come forward.

A massive search operation conducted in seas hundreds of miles from any land has failed to find any debris from the plane.

Experts are continuing to survey the sea floor and are bringing in specialist equipment.

They believe the jet ended its journey in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles north-west of the Australian city of Perth.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-27827967

NO amount of money will ever compensate for the NOT KNOWING what happened to families and friends

[Anthea]

Recap time-line of events:

18:25, the aircraft satellite system, (via radio message) logs on to the Inmarsat network, the identification of the aircraft has been positively identified. Aircraft sends radio signal, (via radio message) and was received by the satellite.

18:39, someone from MH called the aircraft's satellite communications (just like a phone) (via radio message), Aircraft satcom system told the ground (via radio message) "OK, I'm putting the call through to the cockpit", but no one picked up. The aircraft received the call (via radio message) , but no human picked up the call.

19:41, the satellite network asked the aircraft satcom (via radio message), "Are you there?" Aircraft responded (via radio message), "Yes I am"... hence, message received.

20:41, the satellite network asked the aircraft satcom (via radio message), "Are you there?" Aircraft responded (via radio message), "Yes I am"... hence, message received.

21:41, the satellite network asked the aircraft satcom (via radio message), "Are you there?" Aircraft responded (via radio message), "Yes I am"... hence, message received.

22:41, the satellite network asked the aircraft satcom (via radio message), "Are you there?" Aircraft responded (via radio message), "Yes I am"... hence, message received.

23:13, someone from MH called the aircraft's satellite communications (just like a phone) (via radio message), Aircraft satcom system told the ground (via radio message) "OK, I'm putting the call through to the cockpit", but no one picked up. The aircraft received the call (via radio message), but no human picked up the call.

00:10, the satellite network asked the aircraft satcom (via radio message), "Are you there?" Aircraft responded (via radio message), "Yes I am"... hence, message received.

00:19, the aircraft satellite system, logs on again (via radio message) to the inmarsat network, the identification of the aircraft has been positively identified. Aircraft sends radio signal (via radio message), and was received by the satellite.

1. Scrubbed data of responses and delay times.
2. The Pings do not prove the distance, direction, or speed flown.
3. The Pings indicate that the plane was at different locations (beyond the published margin of error) over the course of nearly 6 hours.
4. The Pings do not indicate that the plane crashed, although combining the ping data with the fuel data, the plane would not have been able to fly much longer than the last ping time.
5. The SATCOM communicated with the ground station, indicating that some external communications mechanism was available to the aircraft, but not used by the occupants. It also indicates that there were attempts from the ground to communicate with the humans on board, but we are told that those efforts were fruitless.
6. The SATCOM pings do not indicate WHY the humans on board the aircraft did not, could not, or chose not to communicate with the outside world.

As always some very interesting and enlightening information may be found on this site:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... in/6100091

[Anthea]

'MH370 was no accident': Shocking new claim from commercial pilot who spent months investigating doomed flight for new book

A commercial pilot and a journalist have written Good Night Malaysian 370: The truth behind the loss of Flight 370
Ewan Wilson and Geoff Taylor say they used a process of elimination to reveal 'the truth behind the tragedy' of the missing plane
'It was deliberate and it was calculated and it should never have been allowed to happen,’ Taylor says
It comes as a Netherlands' survey ship and Chinese military vessel announce plan to begin mapping the Indian Ocean floor in mid-June for the next phase in the search

The disappearance of MH370 has been described as ‘deliberate’ and ‘calculated’ in the latest book to be published on the tragedy.

New Zealand authors Ewan Wilson, a commercial pilot and Hamilton City Councillor, and Waikato Times journalist Geoff Taylor, said they used a process of elimination to lead readers to the revelation that the tragedy was no accident.

Wilson told stuff.co.nz that the conclusion of Good Night Malaysian 370: The truth behind the loss of Flight 370 will shock the travelling public.

‘For the first time we present a detailed analysis of the flight, the incredible route it took, and who we believe was in charge of the aircraft as it plunged into the Indian Ocean,’ Wilson said.

The book begins at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8 and weaves in the lives of the 239 passengers and crew on board what was meant to be a short flight to Beijing.

Wilson, a former CEO of two airlines and with qualifications in transport safety investigations, said the men investigated each piece of evidence and eliminated all the possible scenarios until the reader is left with 'one shocking and unbelievable conclusion'.

‘The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 captured the world's attention and shocked everyone - [the outcome] is gut-wrenching,’ he said.

The authors travelled to Malaysia to interview authorities and family members of MH370's pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah.

Taylor said authorities were not willing to admit the truth.

‘For the sake of the relatives of those on the flight the truth needs to be out there,’ he said. ‘We visited the departure lounge where families sat full of excitement and anticipation waiting for their boarding call. Surely they deserve better than a cover up?'

During a late night visit to the departure lounge Taylor recalled the moment his conclusion swept over him.

‘What happened to MH370 was no accident,’ he said. ‘It was deliberate and it was calculated and it should never have been allowed to happen.’

Wilson said the March 8 mystery could determine which airlines passengers choose in the future.

The authors also recommend immediate changes to the management of flight crews and the introduction of tamper-proof technical systems to ensure the aircraft can be tracked at all times.

Meanwhile, Australia has chosen a state-of-the-art Dutch vessel to help map the Indian Ocean floor as the search for missing flight MH370 heads deeper under water.



Netherlands-based Fugro Survey will assist a Chinese military vessel in surveying the ocean bed as part of the next stage of the quest for the Malaysia Airlines plane which vanished three months ago.

The MV Fugro Equator, which is equipped with a deep water multi-beam echo sounder system, will work with Chinese PLA-Navy ship Zhu Kezhen to complete the mapping ahead of the underwater search by an as-yet undetermined contractor.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is now planning to comb a 60,000 square-kilometre (24,000 square-mile) search zone based on the plane's last satellite communication.

The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) stated that the survey would provide crucial information to help plan the deep water search for MH370 which is scheduled to begin in August.

‘The bathymetric (ocean floor) survey will provide a map of the underwater search zone, charting the contours, depths and composition of the seafloor in water depths up to 6,000 metres,’ the JACC said.

Fugro said in a statement that it expected its vessel to start mapping in mid-June which was expected to take about three months.

The Malaysian government has revealed it has spent just a fraction of what Australia has paid in the search for missing flight MH370, as officials from both countries prepare to meet to discuss the next phase of the mission.

But Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey said Australia will pay its fair share in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

'It is understood that the plane went down in waters that are our responsibility, and there is a cost to having responsibility and we don't shirk that,' he told reporters on Tuesday morning.

'We accept responsibility and will pay for it. We're not a country that begs others for money to do our job.'

The Australian government has set aside almost $90 million for the search - expected to be the most expensive in aviation history - but it's possible that figure could increase.

More than three months have passed since the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard - including six Australians.

The Boeing 777 is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, but an extensive search has turned up no sign of wreckage.

The Australia Transport Safety Board last week issued a tender to continue the deep-water search for the ill-fated flight.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... picks=true

[Anthea]

Telegraph

MH370 captain plotted route to southern Indian Ocean on home simulator

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 three months ago discover new evidence which has renewed suspicions about its pilot


Suspicion of Captain Zaharie emerged within a week of MH370's disappearance as the Chinese government intensified pressure on Malaysia to explain the mystery and find the missing plane

The pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane which disappeared in March with 239 people on board had plotted a flight path to a remote island far into the southern Indian Ocean where the search is now focused, investigators have discovered.

The route, which was deleted before MH370 disappeared on March 8, was made on a home flight simulator machine used for practice by its captain, Zaharie Shah. Its discovery has intensified suspicion that he deliberately hijacked his own plane and diverted it from its approved flight path to Beijing.

More than three months have now passed since the flight disappeared in what has become one of the great mysteries of modern aviation. And despite a lack of any hard evidence, suspicion of Capt Zaharie's involvement has grown as investigators have gradually eliminated other potential suspects and causes of its disappearance.

Detectives and investigators, including experts from Britain's Air Incident Branch, have so far found no evidence of a technical fault or malfunction which could explain its disappearance. Inquiries into the backgrounds of the flight's passengers and crew have similarly failed to yield any evidence of, or motive for, anyone hijacking the plane or sabotaging it.

But suspicion of Capt Zaharie emerged within a week of MH370's disappearance as the Chinese government intensified pressure on Malaysia to explain the mystery and find the missing plane. More than 150 of its 227 passengers were Chinese nationals.

Detectives raided Capt Zaharie's home in Kuala Lumpur and took away his flight simulator as part of their investigation as tracking information from the British Inmarsat satellite company indicated the flight had not plunged into the South China Sea off Malaysia's east cost close to Vietnam as feared but had doubled back across the Malay Peninsula, turned left and headed towards the southern Indian Ocean.

Its movement indicated it had been deliberately diverted but there is no evidence yet to conclude who was responsible.

On Friday, shortly before new details of Capt Zaharie's deleted simulator flight path emerged, Malaysia's acting transport minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, said his search team would soon begin looking in a new area in the southern Indian Ocean corridor suggested by a new analysis.

"We have to continue with the lead because the best lead we have is based on the handshake on the Inmarsat [satellite data] and still in the southern corridor", he said.

Sources close to the investigation confirmed to The Telegraph on Sunday that a deleted flight path had been recovered from Capt Zaharie's simulator which had been used to practice landing an aircraft on a small runway on an unnamed island in the far southern Indian Ocean.

The discovery leaves Capt Zaharie as the prime suspect in a crime which cannot yet be proven to have been committed – and Malaysian police have been careful in their public comments to stress that all leads are still being investigated and no conclusions have been reached.

At a press conference in Kuala Lumpur on March 16, however, Malaysia's chief of police Khalid Abu Bakar said he believed the plane had been diverted by hijackers, saboteurs or someone with a personal vendetta or psychological problem. Friends and relatives of Capt Zaharie denied he had any motive for hijacking his own plane and described him as a warm and helpful man who was committed to social work.

He had campaigned for the mainstream People's Justice Party of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and did not support Islamic extremists, party worker Sivarasa Rasiah told The Telegraph shortly after the plane disappeared.

"He comes across as a really likeable guy, a warm guy. There is absolutely no way he is doing this of his own volition," he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... lator.html

[Anthea]

Independent

MH370: Search restarts as investigators consider 1,000 possible flight paths
Zachary Davies Boren

Six months after Malaysia Airlines 370 mysteriously vanished, authorities are looking at thousands of possible flight paths

It has been six months since Malaysia Airlines flight 370 vanished over the Indian Ocean and yet the mystery endures. With 1,000 flight paths still to investigate, a new year-long search operation will be launched, according to the coordinating task force.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is facing an “intimidating” challenge as it prepares a fresh off-shore investigation for the missing aircraft that could cost up to £29.5 million.

Martin Dolan, ATSB’s chief commissioner, made no promises that the wreckage of MH370 would be found, and admitted that the situation is “unprecedented.”

He told the Telegraph: “I don’t want to raise the hopes of the families of the people who were lost in this accident and then dash them again. I don’t want to create a false hope.

“But I don’t want them to write it off either, because we do think we have a reasonable prospect. We just don’t have a guarantee.”

Flight 370 went down in a remote and inhospitable area of the Indian Ocean, Dolan assured, but that expanse is over 600,000 sq miles – more than three times the size of Spain.

He said a "reasonably clear picture" of the plane's final trajectory has emerged, even if there are still about 1,000 possible paths it could have taken.

"There is an infinite possible number of tracks that the aircraft could have flown along, but for practical purposes there are about 1,000," he said.

Carrying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing 227 passengers and 12 crew members, the Boeing 777 known as MH370 vanished in the early hours of March 8.

Search operations lasted until late May with no significant discoveries – no trace of the plane nor its black box. Having spent months narrowing down the aircraft’s possible location, Australia and Malaysia have agreed to split the cost of the revived investigation. China, which had 153 citizens on board, is “reflecting” on its role in operations, and will play no immediate part. Recent reports accuse Chinese police of detaining and beating the families of MH370 passengers.

The Australia-Malaysia search operation will begin on September 22 with the deployment of a vessel called Go Pheonix. It will use “next generation sonar synthetic aperture” equipment capable of producing high-quality images of the bottom of the ocean, according to Mr Dolan.

Fugro, a Dutch engineering firm that provides services to oil and gas companies, has been contracted to manage the high-profile hunt, and will assign three vessels in the coming weeks to search operations.

The physical search, as well as data analysis in the UK, Australia and France, will focus in part of the southern Indian Ocean known as the “seventh arc.” It is 2,485 miles long.

Mr Dolan said: "We know that the aircraft is in the water or on the sea floor close to that arc, and we are doing everything we can - which is a lot - to make sure we find it there.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 17778.html

[Anthea]

Once the search for MH370 resumes, it is expected to take 12 months just to complete the underwater search of the 'priority' area. If it is not found there, it could take years, probably decades, to search all of the other 'more probable areas', let alone all of the possible crash areas, given how many times the priority area and most likely crash areas have shifted based on new information. Let's all hope that it is where they are focused on now and is actually found and does not go undetected...

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... in/6139707

[Anthea]

The Telegraph

MH370 investigators probe 1,000 'possible' flight paths
By Tom Phillips, Shanghai

With the underwater hunt for MH370 set to restart, the mission's Australian chief says he does not want to create 'false hope' but believes the plane can be found

Six months after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 the man leading the operation to find it has admitted investigators are still having to consider 1,000 possible flight paths it may have taken before crashing into the southern Indian Ocean.

Martin Dolan, the chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is coordinating the search, said his team faced an "intimidating" and "unprecedented" challenge as it prepared to launch a one-year offshore search operation that could cost up to £29.5 million.

The only near certainty was that Flight 370 had gone down in a remote and inhospitable expanse of ocean that, at nearly 618,000 sq miles, is more than three times the size of Spain.

Asked if he could guarantee that the plane's wreckage would be found, Mr Dolan told The Telegraph: "I'd like to be that confident, but this is unprecedented.

"I don't want to raise the hopes of the families of the people who were lost in this accident and then dash them again. I don't want to create a false hope.

"But I don't want them to write it off either, because we do think we have a reasonable prospect. We just don't have a guarantee."

Link to full excellent Article and Videos:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... paths.html