OCTOBER 23, 2014
AN alert has been issued in Indonesia for residents to be on the lookout for debris from missing Malaysia Airlines’ plane MH370 as the underwater search in the southern Indian Ocean resumes more than 3500km away.
The latest update from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said search vessel Fugro Discovery arrived at its designated site yesterday and would begin sonar scans immediately.
To date 1200km of the seabed has been searched but no trace of the Boeing 777 has been found.
It is now more than seven months since the aircraft disappeared with 239 people on board, on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
New search ... Malaysia’s Defence Minister toured the GO Phoenix in Fremantle. Picture: Twitter Source: Twitter
The ATSB update notes that the bureau “continues to receive messages from members of the public who have found material washed up on the Australian coastline that they think 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 any floating debris, it is far more likely to have travelled west, away from the coastline of Australia,” said the report.
Inside the search ... as a briefing occurs on the survey ship Go Phoenix searching for MH370. Picture: Twitter Source:Twitter
“It is possible that some materials may have drifted to the coastline of Indonesia and an alert has been issued in that country requesting that the authorities be alerted to any possible debris from the aircraft.”
Today ATSB officials and those from the Joint Agency Coordination Centre will meet with the Malaysian Government and airline executives in Kuala Lumpur.
They are believed to be providing an update on the progress of the search, and addressing growing speculation they may be looking in the wrong place.
New path ... Malaysia’s Defence Minister receives a briefing about the MH370 search on board the vessel GO Phoenix, at port in Fremantle. Picture: Twitter Source: Twitter
Malaysia’s Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein toured the search vessel GO Phoenix at the Port of Fremantle yesterday, and told those present “we must continue to hope, for sometimes hope is all we have”.
“If we are looking in the right place, I am 99.9 per cent optimistic we will find it,” he said.
He also offered an assurance the fate of the aircraft would not be forgot.
“The quest will continue in collaboration with the government of Australia and China,” Mr Hishammuddin said.
In past weeks the satellite company collaborating with search authorities to find MH370 has warned of “significant uncertainty” in regards to its final location.
The ATSB has also stressed the search is taking places within “probabilities” and priorities for the vessels involved could change.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/
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