on 18-01-2017 02:10 PM
AFTER nearly three years, the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 ended in futility and frustration, as crews completed their deep-sea search of a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean without finding a trace of the plane.
The Joint Agency Coordination Center in Australia, which has helped lead the $160 million hunt for the Boeing 777 in remote waters west of Australia, said the search had officially been suspended after crews finished their fruitless sweep of the 120,000-square kilometre search zone.
“Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting-edge technology, as well as modelling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft,” the agency said in a statement, which was a joint communique between the transport ministers of Malaysia, Australia and China.
“Accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended. The decision to suspend the underwater search has not been taken lightly nor without sadness.”
Officials investigating the plane’s disappearance have recommended search crews head north to a new area identified in a recent analysis as a possible crash site.
But the Australian government has already nixed that idea.
The husband of a victim of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 says it’s “mind-boggling” that Australia won’t search an area north of the existing search zone where experts recently concluded the plane likely crashed
Chandrika Sharma was one of the 239 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 when it crashed in March 2014. Her husband, K.S. Narendran, and other relatives of victims say they’re dismayed by Tuesday’s suspension of the search for the plane.
Narendran says the families involved expect to one day get a “credible explanation to what has happened,” even if they never see their loved ones again.
Without an explanation, Narendan says he feels there’s a “good chance that this could happen in the future.”
Last year, Australia, Malaysia and China - which have each helped fund the search - agreed that the hunt would be suspended once the search zone was exhausted unless new evidence emerges that pinpoints the plane’s specific location.
Wonder if we'll ever find out what happened to that plane?
on 18-01-2017 03:14 PM
maybe global warming has increased the size of the bemuda triangle?
i still think the plane was hijacked by north korea, where it is is anyones guess now.
on 18-01-2017 04:08 PM
Unfortunately, the main way underwater wreckage is usually located is the Underwater Locator Beacon's signal - without one of those, you've got Buckley's. MH370's is thought to have expired around April 2014.
"Since no technology currently exists that can tell investigators exactly where the plane is...". That's the ball-game, right there. Only hope of finding it is a Titanic-type search of the ocean floor, and they at least had a known search area for Titanic.
on 18-01-2017 04:28 PM
i still find it laughable that in the 21st century we can lose a fully loaded modern plane.
like you can fit your car with a global positioning device so if its stolen you can find it.
maybe a how many million dollar plane ought to be fitted with one huh?
on 18-01-2017 05:00 PM
@davidc4430 wrote:maybe global warming has increased the size of the bemuda triangle?
i still think the plane was hijacked by north korea, where it is is anyones guess now.
You've got to hand it to those North Koreans. It's really clever how they keep removing bits of the plane, immersing them in just the right water conditions to produce the type of marine life that would be clinging to them if they'd really been floating around in the Southern Ocean and then secretly depositing those pieces on beaches in the very areas where they would be expected to turn up.
on 18-01-2017 05:17 PM
exactly, only a few bits have been found. exactly where you would expect them to be found if the plane crashed where they have been looking for it. not hard to drop a few bits into the sea in the general area.
2 years of searchings found nothing, but these bits turn up on a beach. what luck!
on 18-01-2017 05:24 PM
18-01-2017 06:32 PM - edited 18-01-2017 06:33 PM
I think an unidentified plane or boat stooging around in the very area where the search was going on might just possibly have been noticed.
on 18-01-2017 07:14 PM
@the_great_she_elephant wrote:I think an unidentified plane or boat stooging around in the very area where the search was going on might just possibly have been noticed.
maybe not in the early days of the search, and they wouldnt be just flying about, one pass with back door open....out ya go debris.
ok, go home now.
who knows, maybe the north koreans dumped more but it sunk.
after all they only wanted the engines for prez ming ding dungs plane.
on 18-01-2017 07:16 PM
my error, prez kim i gotta long dong