MH370 IAN MCPHEDRAN, JULIAN SWALLOW NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA MARCH 20, 2014 9:09PM
THE anxious families of the Australians on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are on tenterhooks waiting for confirmation radar images showing large debris floating 2300km off the coast of Western Australia are actually the lost plane.
Six Australians were on board the ill-fated flight, as well as New Zealand-born Paul Weeks, who was living in Perth. Mary and Rodney Burrows and Catherine and Robert Lawton, all from Brisbane, were travelling together from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when the plane disappeared on March 8.
Li Yuan and Gu Naijun, from Sydney, were also on board.
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On Thursday night a member of the Lawton family said they were aware of the latest developments but were waiting for a more conclusive discovery. Meanwhile, experts have warned that if the plane is lying at the bottom of the southern Indian Ocean 2300km southwest of Perth the recovery operation could take months or even years. The water depth in the area where flotsam was detected by satellite is about 3600m.
Mary and Rodney Burrows
Catherine and Robert Lawton. Source:Supplied
Wreckage of Air France Flight 447 that crashed in 2009 was recovered two years later from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of 4000m.
The Titanic was found in 3800m of water and the HMAS Sydney was located and photographed in great detail in 2468m in the Indian Ocean off the coast of WA.
Neither of those wrecks were recovered.
Almost two weeks after the crash there would be less debris on the surface and it would be more dispersed from any wreckage that has sunk to the bottom.
Satellite imagery provided to AMSA of objects that may be possible debris of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in a revised area 185km to the south east of the original search area. Source:Supplied
A second object spotted via satellite, which is 5m long
Once the search area was identified the massive task of locating the bulk of the wreck would begin taking account of currents and winds. It could be hundreds of kilometres from the crash site.
An RAAF Hercules aircraft yesterday dropped marker buoys in the area highlighted by the satellite imagery to track currents and wind drift.
Four search aircraft were on the scene using scanners to detect minute temperature differences between the water and debris, as well as radar.
A merchant ship that responded to a shipping broadcast issued by Rescue Co-ordination Australia on Monday was due in the area about 6pm on Thursday.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) spokesman John Young said the marker buoys would provide an ongoing reference point if the task of relocating the objects becomes protracted.
Chinese relatives of missing passengers console each other and wait for news. Picture: AFP Source:AFP
In AMSA’s experience there was usually debris floating in that area, but on this occasion the size, and the fact there were a number, made it worth looking at, he said.
He also cautioned against any hasty expectations of an outcome because of unfavourable weather conditions.
“We may get a sighting, we may not. We may get it tomorrow, we may not,” he said.
“But we will continue to do this until we locate those objects or we are convinced that we cannot find them.”
Navy ships and salvage firms around the world would be capable of locating the wreckage using powerful sonars that detect anomalies on the ocean floor.
US or Chinese nuclear submarines could also isolate the “pings” from the black boxes if they arrive before the 30-day battery limit expires.
Once pinpointed, a remotely operated vehicle known as a Remora would be sent down to capture imagery of the wreckage and to recover items such as the aircraft’s “black boxes” that contain crucial voice and data recorders.
Depending on how the aircraft hit the water there could be bodies still strapped into seats such as those from the Air France jet that smashed into the sea largely intact.
A Royal Australian Air Force pilot flies over the Indian Ocean in search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370
Searchers found debris after just five days and it was estimated that the impact site was about 25km away. It turned out to be 50km away.
If flight MH370 slammed into the ocean at high speed then the likelihood of finding wreckage on the bottom of the ocean is very remote.
AMSA yesterday revealed that satellite images showed two large objects, including one that is 24m long, and several smaller pieces that could be related to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
Some parts of aircraft, such as seat back cushions, are designed to float.
Planes like the Boeing 777 use composite materials in the form of a honeycomb using light materials with air trapped inside.
Journalists at the Everly Hotel near the city watch a news announcement of the debris discovery. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
Those parts will float, as the tail of Air France Flight 447 did, and the tail of the American Airlines A300 jet that crashed shortly after take-off from Kennedy International Airport in November 2001.
The reported objects are close to an area of remote ocean, about 2300km southwest of Perth, where a joint Australian, New Zealand and US team has been searching since Monday for the wide-bodied airliner, which has been missing for the past fortnight with 239 people on board.
Mr Young described it as “the best lead we have at the moment”.
Central Queensland University aviation expert Ron Bishop said discovering what happened to the Boeing 777 would resemble putting together a “jigsaw puzzle”.
Once any aircraft wreckage was recovered, it would be taken to an investigation site where it would be painstakingly assembled in a hangar, Mr Bishop said.
ian.mcphedran@news.com.au
Use the so call sophiscated submerine to dive untill the sea bed and take picture on them, what the used of this machine if its pupursely for killing people during wartime.
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