The Malay Mail Online
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 — Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may have drifted towards the coastline of Indonesia some 1000 miles away from the current coordinated search area in Australia, authorities have said.
The multinational Joint Agency Coordination Centre led by Australia said drift modelling undertaken by its maritime safety authority suggested that if there were any floating debris, it is far likely to have travelled west.
The analysis followed claims that materials believed to be from the doomed Boeing 777 were found washed up along the Australian coastline by the public although the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which heads search operations, said it has yet to determine if the debris are from MH370.
“The ATSB continues to receive message from members of the public who have found material washed up on the Australian coastline and think it may be wreckage or debris from MH370.
“The ATSB reviews all of this correspondence carefully, but drift modelling undertaken by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has suggested that if there were floating debris, if is far more likely to have travelled west, away from the coastline of Australia.
“It is possible that some of the materials may have been drifted to the coastline of Indonesia,” it said in a statement.
JACC spokesperson Judith Zielke speaking to the Malaysian media, however, said the data available is not conclusive.
“The knowledge that the debris may have drifted to Indonesia is open knowledge… but the data we have remain limited,” she said.
Meanwhile the ATSB said vessels with high resolution sonar capabilities have been deployed around the seventh arc of the search area where the aircraft may have likely reached.
The Go Phoenix underwater vessel, which stopped searching for resupply on October 16, has commenced its survey while Fugro Vessels is in the midst of surveying a second area of the arc.
It said refinement to the analysis of the prioritised areas gave greater certainty about when the aircraft turned south into the Indian Ocean.
But despite the progress, ATSB said the search could still continue for months due to the vast area of the search parameters.
“With the relatively high resolution vehicles we could find the debris in one day but given the enormous size of the search area, the search could take many months,” its spokesperson Peter Foley told a press conference.
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, who departed for Australia to oversee the Go Phoenix first port call, has expressed confidence that MH370 would be found.
“We must continue to hope because sometimes hope is all we have. We will find MH370,” he was quoted as saying.
Source: https://my.news.yahoo.com
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