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re: PhOtOs-Pilot Killed Himself & Passengers:Missing Flight MH370
Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight : Navy Divers Search for Vanished Jet
Daily Mirror UK, 9 April 2014
Divers begin to search the ocean depths after more pings thought to be from the aircraft's black box flight recorder were picked up
Once the search teams are confident they know where the pings are coming from, they can then lower a small submarine to look for debris on the seafloor.
The bottom of the ocean in the search area is about 14,800 feet down.
It is hoped the sub could be deployed within the next couple of days, with rescuers now more optimistic then ever of finding the wreckage.
RECENT SEARCH HISTORY:
Quote:
9:21 pm
Australian Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of the Joint Agency Co-ordination Center is in charge of the search for missing Flight MH370 today expressed his hope the plane will be found soon.
Angus Houston said:
"I'm now optimistic that we will find the aircraft, or what is left of the aircraft, in the not too distant future - but we haven't found it yet, because this is a very challenging business."
7:43 pm
The search is currently taking place along a strip of the Indian Ocean known as Wharton Basin.
This is a fairly flat underwater region which has thick layers of silt on the ocean floor.
However, experts believe that if the plane did fall to the bottom of the ocean, it would not be too deeply buried, the Telegraph reported.
6:45 pm
As well as being on course to be the most expensive recovery operation in aviation history, the search for Flight MH370 is also using some of the world's most sophisticated technology.
The US Navy is using its autonomous underwater vehicle which, incredibly, is just 21 inches in diameter.
It can travel to the deepest depths of the ocean, which are inaccessible to humans.
5:38 pm
Today's detections show the pings are within a 12-mile radius of the search teams.
However, that is still a 500-square-mile area of the floor of the ocean.
4:38 pm
"We might not get all the limelight,” Leading Aircraftman Andrew Smith of the Royal Australian Air Force told Singapore's Todaycom, "but definitely the right people in the right places know and appreciate the work that we do."
The aircraft technician is working through the night on the four Australian P-3 Orion planes involved in the search.
Those military planes are dropping buoys equipped with sonar that can detect signals about 1,000 feet deep to aid Australia's Ocean Search in the attempt to locate MH370.
HMS Echo has scoured an area six times the size of Greater London as everyone involved in the hunt faces a race against time before the flight recorder stops sending out a signal.
The Ministry of Defence said the ship was working alongside ships and aircraft from seven other nations, the two Royal Navy vessels face the same race against time to find the black boxes.
Echo’s hi-tech sonar has been specially adapted so it can pick up any transmissions on the black boxes' frequency.
This is the first time her sonar has been used this way and so far it has located several possible contacts.
But sadly none of them proved to be from MH370’s black box.
The ship has lookouts posted around the clock scanning the ocean for possible debris.
Echo’s commanding officer, Commander Phillip Newell, said his 60 men and women were giving the search their all:
"My ship’s company are working 24/7 to find MH370.
"They are young, bright and enthusiastic and will step up to every challenge in the search for the missing aircraft.
"I am immensely proud of them."
The Royal Australian Navy’s vessel Ocean Shield is searching 300 miles to the north.
HMS Tireless is also working as part of the co-ordinated international search.
Her sonar, like Echo’s, is listening for the ‘ping’ sent out every second by the black box transponder as long as its battery lasts.
The most promising leads have come from the ships now at the forefront of the search, but so far they have not found the black box flight recorder or any wreckage from the missing plane.
3:57 pm
Navy Captain Mark Matthews has confirmed the latest signals in the Indian Ocean come from "man-made device".
3:28 pm
Malaysian toursim and culture minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz has revealed there has been a drop in visits to the country from Chinese tourists since MH370 went missing.
He told a media conference before opening the Asean Socio-Cultural Community Session in Kuala Lumpur: We were doing well for January and February.
"But of course, the MH370 incident has definitely affected Malaysia's tourism.
"But what is important is that we sympathise with the families of the passengers on board MH370, and the question of whether we will continue our campaign in China does not arise for the moment.
"I think we must respect the sensitivity issue.
"So long as there is no closure to MH370, I do not see the suitability of us continuing the campaign in China."
Chinese travel promotions and the 2014 Visit Malaysia roadshows have been cancelled until a later date due to the missing plane, The Malaysia Insider reported.
2:53 pm
Russian intelligence sources have claimed the Boeing 777 was hijacked and flown to Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border.
According to The Sun, a source close to the FSB secret service told a Russian newspaper: "All the passengers are alive, they have been divided into seven groups and are living in mud huts with almost no food."
The disappearance of Flight MH370 has become one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in decades.
All 239 passengers and crew are missing presumed dead.
No sign of life has been detected using satellite imagery mapping parts of the southern Indian Ocean where search crews are in a race against time to find the missing aircraft's black boxes.
Search vessel: Australia's Ocean Shield conducting search operations for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
1:55 pm
This is a P-3 Orion flying above the Australian ship Ocean Shield, which is using a towed pinger to locate the pings from MH370's black boxes.
The aircraft is dropping buoys with sensors on in an attempt to pick up signals from the flight data recorder and ****pit voice recorder.
1:27 pm
MP George Galloway also believes that Flight MH370 has been hijacked, this time taken to the US military base in Diego Garcia.
That is one of the many conspiracy theories being touted as a desperate search operation continues in the southern Indian Ocean.
12:35 pm
The detection of pings without wreckage has reinforced the belief that MH370 was hijacked and relatives of the missing are furious at investigators.
The hijacking conspiracy theory is one believed by Sarah Bajc, the partner of American passenger Phillip Wood.
Speaking from Beijing, Ms Bajc told the American news network: "All of us pretty well agree that until there's the bulk of the plane, the bulk of the bodies discovered, and a black box intact, we won't believe that it's final evidence [of a crash].
"I don't think the authorities have given us much confidence of their investigative skills so far."
12:21 pm
Retire Lt Col. Angus Houston spoke at a press conference late to relay the news that Australia's Ocean Shield had detected the pings again.
Here is what the search co-ordinator had to say.
It's day 32 of the hunt for MH370 and hopes have been lifted, the search area narrowed and more equipment deployed to locate those elusive black boxes.
11:59 am
Until now, the costliest search and recovery effort ever undertaken followed the crash of Air France 447 hundreds of miles off the coast of Brazil.
The plane crashed in 2009 but wasn't found until two-years later.
About 115 million euros, roughly $160 million at the time, was spent over the salvage operation, according to estimates by experts.
The search for Flight 370 is already far more complicated, and may have already topped that total, reports the New York Times.
Some of the ships involved cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a day apiece to use.
And some of the aircraft being used can cost thousands of dollars an hour each to operate, officials say.
Ramon Navaratnam, chairman of the Center for Public Policy Studies at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute in Kuala Lumpur, told the American newspaper: "Each country will have to ask itself: What are the prospects of further investigation and the cost-benefit of it?
"If there’s no prospect, there’s no prospect: We have to be very realistic.
"But it’s a very difficult decision to make. It’s like someone on a medical support system and you have to determine whether to pull the wires or not."
11:08 am
The detection of the pings on Tuesday have lifted spirits in the arduous search for MH370.
At a press conference in Perth, search co-ordinator Angus Houston said: "I believe we are searching in the right area but we need to visually identify wreckage."
And experts have confirmed the signals did not come from a natural origin. The search is closing in.
10:32 am
The search of Malaysia Airlines MH370 is expected to be the most expensive in history.
10:01 am
Signals are being picked up from 15,000 feet below the water's surface.
NBC News claim the "pings" are coming from the maximum known depth of the ocean floor below the ship.
Salvage of the missing black boxes could prove an intense challenge for the search operation.
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Ships Searching for Malaysia Jet Detect Black Box Ping
Previous Articles>
Missing flight MH370: Australian search ship detects signals consistent with transmissions from aircraft black boxes
 The man leading the hunt for the lost jetliner described the find as a "massive development"
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