Australia to lead new search for missing Malaysian Airways plane

By Efrosini Costa

Australia to lead new search for missing Malaysian Airways plane
Australia will lead a new search for the mysterious missing Malaysian Airways plane off the coast of Perth.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has confirmed that a search will take place from the air and on the water 3,000km off the coast of Perth.

Assisting with the search, New Zealand and the US have also supplied aircraft and ships – including four Orion search planes from the RAAF, one New Zealand Orion and a Poseidon operated by the US.

“AMSA has defined a possible search area with information available to us from a range of sources both nationally and internationally,” AMSA’s emergency response general manager John Young told Australian media.

“This search will be difficult. The sheer size of the search area poses a huge challenge – the search area is more than 600,000 square kilometres,” he added.

“AMSA holds great concerns for those on the flight but is working positively … as part of international efforts.”

The new search areas for the mysterious missing flight MH370, are based on information provided by the US National Transportation Safety Board and collected by Malaysian authorities.

“The area where the aircraft might have entered the water was corrected for water movement over the elapsed time by the Rescue Coordination Centre in Canberra to provide a possible search area that is relevant to efforts today,” Young told reporters, assuring them that every attempt will be made to further refine the search area as more information becomes available.

“This includes further analysis of drift modelling and other search tools, but with the passage of significant time since the eighth of March and with the constant movement of water that’ll be constantly difficult.”

Meanwhile, China has also launched it’s own search for the missing Boeing-777  in its own territory, the country’s state media announced, they also believe that no evidence has been found linking the 153 Chinese passengers aboard the missing flight to terror or hijacking.

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told world media yesterday that finding the missing plane was still their main focus determined not to rule out that they may find the vessel still intact.

“The fact that there was no distress signal, no ransom notes, no parties claiming responsibility, there is always hope,” Hishammuddin told a news conference.

With no wreckage yet to be found, the missing plane continues to be one of the most puzzling aviation mysteries of all time. Sadly, for the families of the passengers on board the agonising wait for any news of their loved ones continues.

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