Sharpest deep sea eyes about to open again on MH370 search zones
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The giant crane on the new ship will handle a powerful autonomous submersible search device
The sharpest seeing autonomous underwater vehicle available is out of storage and being fitted to a newly chartered ship at a marine centre south of Fremantle as better summer sea states set in over the Southern Indian Ocean search area for MH370.
The AUV is a Hugin 4500 which was briefly used before the onset of the southern winter made its deployment and recovery too risky. The extra Fugro vessel, the Havila Harmony has the most capable active heave compensated crane yet used in the Malaysia directed Australia managed sea bed search for the sunk wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines 777-200ER missing since 8 March 2014 with 239 people on board.
After calibration trials off the coast of Fremantle, the vessel is expected to sail for the search area this Saturday 28 November arriving 3 December.
The Joint Agency Coordination Centre says the AUV will again be used to survey the most difficult portions of the search area that cannot be searched as effectively by the deep tow search systems on the other search vessels.
The weekly search update issued today which includes maps, video links, explanatory graphics and an extensive gallery, can be read here.
The search, down to one ship temporarily because of an injury that caused the other to return to port, is in the general area predicted to hold MH370’s remains by Captain Simon Hardy.
Some objects previously logged as being of potential interest haven’t been sonar scanned with enough definition to determine if they are from MH370, which was on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it went dark to air traffic control systems and flew for about seven hours 39 minutes over the southern Indian Ocean to a point where it was last heard pinging a communications satellite that had to be about 44 degrees above the horizon.
The search management has been criticised, rightly or wrongly, for being too quick to dismiss several of these indeterminate objects as not being from MH370. It is hoped that a definitive examination of those objects will be made by the AUV, unless of course Captain Hardy is found to have been correct beforehand.
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MH 370 WILL NEVER BE FOUND BECAUSE IT WAS JACKED TO THE 25TH DIMENSION BY BEINGS FROM THERE WHO COLLECT PEOPLE & STUFF FROM ALL OVER THE UNIVERSE & ALL TIME!!! NOW SSSHHHAAADDDUUUPPP, SSSHHHAAADDDUUUPPP, SSSHHHAAADDDUUUPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
– TED SMITH, UPSTATE NEW YORK, USA
Interesting point of view but there’s no need to shout! Mercifully Ben’s blog has been remarkably free from this sort of post (freedom of speech, expression, etc). Long may it continue.
On topic, I hope this vessel and its equipment brings some result. Perhaps MH370 will never be found but I doubt if it will be for the reason given above.
I think he’ll be OK again after he takes his medications.
Mr. Ben Sandilands – I suggest the AUV be deployed to the crash site of midday 8 Mch 2014 near the Andaman Sea. A plane passenger returning from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia had spotted a partly submerged aircraft there. She tried alerting the flight crew and subsequently filed two police reports (Url: http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/03/21/Woman-reports-sighting-jet-Raja-Dalelah-Im-convinced-I-saw-aircraft-near-Andaman-islands/ )
She was likely ignored due to the common preconception that nothing on the sea is visible 35,000 feet up, when in fact airplanes emitting vapour trails while cruising at that height are visible from the ground.
The site is close to the delta of Irrawaddy River and Bay of Bengal, thus possibly rich in nutrient. Together with the warmer water as compared to the Southern Indian Ocean, conditions are favourable for the fast growth of barnacles as found on the flaperon at Reunion.
Much as we like to rely on scientific Inmarsat ‘pings’, which do not guarantee that MH370 is in the search area, we should consider other credible leads on where the plane might be.
As flight path of the plane carrying the witness is known, a careful search could be completed in two weeks.
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