[Peetwo]

Will Mearns & OI get the KL nod?

Could be just another spin'n'bulldust story but this AM the following MH370 scuttlebutt was doing the MSM rounds...

From the AAP, via the Oz:

MH370 search to ‘resume’

6:38am

Malaysia to announce that US company Ocean Infinity will resume the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370.

The West Australian reports an offer by US company Ocean Infinity is believed to be favoured by the Malaysian government after a two-year search failed to find any wreckage.

The plane disappeared on March 8, 2014, on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board, and the Australian-led search for the aircraft was suspended in January.

Ocean Infinity’s HUGIN autonomous underwater vehicles are capable of operating at depths of 6000m.

Last month, the company offered to take the financial risk of a renewed search for MH370.

“The terms of the offer are confidential, but I can ... confirm that Ocean Infinity have offered to take on the economic risk of a renewed search,” company spokesman Mark Antelme said.

“We’re in a constructive ­dialogue with the relevant authorities and are hopeful that the offer will be accepted.’’

Voice370, a support group for families of the 239 people on board, said under the terms of the offer made in April, Ocean Infinity “would like to be paid a reward if and only if it finds the main debris field”.

AAP

& via news.com.au this afternoon:

Malaysia is set to resume the search for missing aircraft MH370
MALAYSIA says it is in no rush to kickstart the abandoned search for MH370 despite three companies offering to continue to look for the missing plane.

Staff writers, AAP, Reuters
News Corp Australia NetworkOctober 17, 2017 3:49pm


Authorities say they now have a better understanding of where the plane of missing flight MH370 may be.
[img=0x0]https://i1.wp.com/pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/news/content/v2/2f4a1ac9afbee545dfd72870657970e5?t_product=newscomau&t_template=../video/player[/img]

Malaysia is set to resume the search for MH370. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

THREE companies have offered to continue the abandoned search for MH370, but Malaysia says no decision has been made on whether they will be given the go ahead.

The West Australian reports an offer by US company Ocean Infinity is believed to be favoured by the Malaysian government after a two-year search failed to find any wreckage.

The plane disappeared on March 8, 2014, on the way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board, and the Australian-led search for the aircraft was suspended in January.

Last month the company offered to take up the search.


HMAS searches for MH370 in the Indian Ocean in 2014. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

“The terms of the offer are confidential, but I can ... confirm that Ocean Infinity have offered to take on the economic risk of a renewed search,” company spokesman Mark Antelme said.

“We’re in a constructive ­dialogue with the relevant authorities and are hopeful that the offer will be accepted.’’

Voice370, a support group for families of the 239 people on board, said under the terms of the offer made in April, Ocean Infinity “would like to be paid a reward if and only if it finds the main debris field”.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said proposals were received from U.S.-based seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity, Dutch firm Fugro and an unidentified Malaysian company.

“We won’t be deciding anything now on whether we are embarking on a new search or not,” Liow told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Kuala Lumpur.

“We have to discuss with the companies. It will take some time as it’s some detailed discussions,” he said.

Earlier this month the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) published its final 440-page report into the search, which spanned 1046 days from the time the Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared on March 8, 2014, until it was suspended in January.

“We ... deeply regret that we have not been able to locate the aircraft, nor those 239 souls on board that remain missing,” the report said.

The search for MH370 was the largest of its type in aviation history, covering several million square kilometres of the ocean’s surface and below.

It came at a cost of $200 million, and involved Australian, Chinese and Malaysian authorities.

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of hundreds of people involved in the search from around the world, the aircraft has not been located,” the report said.

ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood described the search as “an unprecedented endeavour” but said the situation remained “a great tragedy”.


The most likely resting place of MH370. Picture: GoogleSource:Supplied

“We wish that we could have brought complete closure to the bereaved,” he said.

“I hope, however, that they can take some solace in the fact that we did all we could do to find answers. Governments from around the world contributed to the search, with extraordinary expertise committed to the task.”

The ATSB acknowledged that it was “almost inconceivable and certainly societally unacceptable”, in an era where 10 million passengers fly daily, for a large commercial aircraft to still be missing.

“And for the world to know with certainty what became of the aircraft and those on board,” the report read.

At least 20 reported remnants of the plane, including a flaperon, have washed up on the shores of Madagascar and Reunion Island off the African coast since it disappeared.

MORE: How MH370 crash unfolded


Visiting aviation and air safety experts examine the right outboard main wing flap from MH370 at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in Canberra last year.Source:News Corp Australia

MH370 VIRTUALLY PINPOINTED

In August it was claimed new evidence had virtually pinpointed the location of MH370 — 1258 days since it disappeared.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau released an explosive report that effectively narrowed the search zone for the missing plane down to an area half the size of Melbourne.

The report placed the most likely location of the aircraft “with unprecedented precision and certainty” at 35.6°S, 92.8°E — in between Western Australia and Madagascar.

ATSB chief Greg Hood said he would have liked to see the search continue but admitted it would require more conclusive evidence to convince the government.

“Clearly we must be cautious. These objects have not been definitely identified as MH370 debris,” Mr Hood said.

Malaysian transport minister Dato Sri Liow Tiong said the newly defined area was not enough to go on and it was hoped debris drift modelling would help narrow the location further.

GeoScience Australia has been examining four satellite images of objects floating on the southern Indian Ocean taken two weeks after the plane went missing in the area identified late last year as MH370’s likely resting spot.

They found 12 objects in those images that they deemed man-made and 28 that they regard as possibly man-made.

The images were taken by a French Military satellite in late March 2014 but were discarded by authorities. The ATSB was not involved in the search at that time.

The drift modelling initially released late last year identified an area of 25,000sq km just outside the original search area.

The report combined a refinement of that drift modelling as well as the discarded satellite images to narrow the likely search zone down to an area of just 5000sq km.

As part of the latest report, all satellite imagery of the relevant new area came up for review.

Their location near the “7th arc” of the search zone makes them impossible to ignore, the report states.

The new plot is based on comprehensive drift modelling and testing — including the release of a real Boeing 777 flaperon to test the floating characteristics of the one belonging to MH370 recovered off the coast of Africa.

“We measured its drift characteristics after modifying it to match the damaged one retrieved from Ile de la Reunion,” the report said.

“This work did not change our estimate of the most likely location of the impact — it just increased confidence in the modelling by explaining more easily the 29 July 2015 Ile de la Reunion flaperon discovery.”

The researchers combined ocean current modelling with the satellite images, assessing the motion of wind and water in the Indian Ocean between March 8 and 24.

They came up with a ‘bracket’ of locations based on these tested drift patterns, naming them West 1, West 2, East 1 and East 2. These locations straddle the arc from which MH370’s transmitters were last detected.

Researchers “consider the location in East1 to be the more likely” because it is the only one indicated by both drift models, the report reads.

It goes on to add that it cannot rule out all possible man-made debris came from the same impact location on March 8.


MH370 victim Paul Weeks with his wife Danica.Source:News Corp Australia

MH370 SEARCH SUSPENDED

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 helped lead the 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.


A relative of missing Chinese passengers aboard MH370 before a meeting in Beijing in January, a day after authorities announced the end of search operations for the aircraft. Picture: AFPSource:AFP


Amanda Lawton and Jeanette Maguire at the Memorial service for families of MH370 victims at St John's Cathedral in March. Picture: Jamie HansonSource:News Corp Australia

“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.

MTF...P2