THE search and recovery operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft in the southern Indian Ocean will resume tomorrow.
“A visual search will resume tomorrow when the weather is expected to improve after gale force winds and heavy swells resulted in the suspension of the search operation on Tuesday,” AMSA said tonight.
As many as 12 aircraft are expected to be involved in the search tomorrow, including seven military aircraft and five civil aircraft.
HMAS Success will return to the search area and conduct a surface sweep of an area identified on Monday afternoon by a Royal Australian Air Force P3 Orion as the location for several objects of interest.
A total of six countries are now assisting in the search — Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea.
India has also offered to join the search and recovery operation.
China’s polar supply ship Xue Long (Snow Dragon) and three other Chinese ships are expected to arrive in the search area on Wednesday.
Malaysian authorities say the search in the northern corridor has been called off.
Hishammuddin Hussein, Minister of Defence and Acting Minister of Transport, said the new analysis by Inmarsat, AAIB and the international investigation team had convinced authorities that MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean west of Perth.
“As a result of this new data analysis the search and rescue operation in the northern corridor has been called off,” he said.
“We’ve also stopped the search and rescue operation in the northern part of the southern corridor, close to Indonesia.
“All search efforts are now focused in the southern part of the southern corridor in an area covering some 469,407 square nautical miles and this is as against 2.24 million square nautical miles which was announced on March 18.”
Mr Hussein said sometime between 0011 UTC and 0115 UTC the aircraft was no longer able to communicate with the ground station.
“0011 UTC last complete handshake too place. I must emphasise this is not the final position of the aircraft,” he said.
“There is evidence of a partial handshake between the aircraft and the ground station at 0019 UTC. At this time this transmission is not understood and is subject to further ongoing work.
“No response was received from the aircraft t 0115 UTC when the ground station sent the next log on log off message. This indicated the aircraft was no longer logged on to the network.
“Therefore sometime between 0011UTC and 0115 UTC the aircraft was no longer able to communicate with the ground station. This is consistent with the max endurance of the aircraft.”
Mr Hussein said he “presumes” any debris discovered in the Australian search area will be brought to Australian soil.
‘WE’RE PRAYING FOR PASSENGERS AND CREW’
The CEO of Malaysia Airlines says the airline has extended its prayers to the families of the 239 passengers on board missing Flight MH370.
Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said he was devastated the passengers didn’t make it to their destination alive.
“We do not know why, we do not know how this terrible tragedy happened. But as MAS family, we all praying for passengers & crew of MH370,” he told a media conference in Kuala Lumpur.
The airline was criticised for informing relatives by text message that the plane had crashed, but the CEO said they did so as they wanted the families to hear the news before the rest of the world.
Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said all next-of-kin relatives had been paid $5000. He said the Australian Government would only grant visas to relatives once evidence of the plane had been found.
Asked if he would resign, he said it was a personal decision, and it would be taken later.
In Beijing, hundreds of angry protesters, many of them relatives of passengers, gathered at the Malaysian embassy to demonstrate against the Malaysia’s handling of the disaster.
The search effort for wreckage from the lost airliner will be boosted with the arrival of a South Korean C-130 Hercules transport and P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft at the RAAF’s Pearce base near Perth.
The hunt for debris was suspended earlier due to bad weather as huge seas slammed the search area.
At midday today the sea state was estimated at between six and seven on the World Meteorological Organisation chart and that means waves of between four and nine metres.
Such conditions make finding or retrieving any debris virtually impossible and they increase the risk of wreckage sinking under the weight of the waves.
“Due to rough seas, HMAS Success departed the search area early this morning and is now in transit south of the search area until seas abate,” the Australian Maritime Safety Authority advised this morning.
“The area is also forecast to experience strong gale force winds of up to 80km/h, periods of heavy rain, and low cloud with a ceiling between 200 and 500 feet.”
AMSA said conducting the search in such conditions would be hazardous and pose a risk to crews.
