[Peetwo]

Off the wires in recent days there was many MSM versions of this News.com story...

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 search is the most expensive mission in aviation history  

• by: MATT YOUNG
  
• From: news.com.au
  
• 21 hours ago May 29, 2015 1:51PM
  

A Fugro autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) launched from the Australian-contracted survey ship M/V Fugro Discovery scans the ocean floor for the missing flight. Source: Supplied

“I’M not an Australian taxpayer, but if I was, I would be very mad to see money being spent like that.”  

Experts have raised concerns over the handling of the Australian-led search mission of Flight MH370, now the most expensive mission in aviation history.
News Corp’s National Aviation Writer Robyn Ironside reports that “to date, about $60 million has been spent on the search with Australia and Malaysia splitting the cost.
“Both countries have committed another $50 million towards the search effort, and recovery — should the aircraft be found.”

MH370: The Unending Search26:11

• Play video
  

But the search has become so bogged in politics, experts believe the devices used to scour the ocean floor are unsuitable for the task at hand, with claims Dutch company Fugro NV is using inappropriate technology for the deep underwater terrain and inexperienced personnel for hunting man-made objects is hindering plans to keep the project going.

Two Fugro ships scan the ocean floor using a process called “mowing the lawn”, which involves travelling up and down 2.4km wide strips of sea pulling sonar equipment with it.
It is this technique that provides images from the deep sea.



The remains of this shipwreck was detected using technology scoured by Fugro. Source: Getty Images 

The third Fugro ship, used to scan gaps left by the other two ships, was pulled from the mission earlier this month due to deteriorating weather conditions.

Fugro, contracted by the Australian government to operate the search over a 60,000km zone, has rejected the claims their search is ineffective, and they are using the wrong equipment, saying their gear is rigorously tested.

But that denial hasn’t stopped further questions.

“Fugro is a big company but they don’t have any experience in this kind of search and it’s really a very specialised job,” Paul-Henry Nargeolet, hired by France’s air investigation agency BEA to head up the search and recovery efforts of Air France Flight AF447 in 2009, told Reuters.

“This is a big job. I’m not an Australian taxpayer, but if I was, I would be very mad to see money being spent like that.”



Previous searches have found objects on the ocean floor, but not the missing plane. Source: Supplied 

Since the plane disappeared from radar during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 last year, along with its 239 passengers and crew, it has become one of the modern world’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

While search and rescue teams have scoured 48,000 square kilometres of the southern Indian Ocean, not a trace of evidence has been found.

“It makes no sense to be using fine scale tools to cover a massive area; it is like mowing an entire wheat field with a household lawnmower,” Rob McCallum, a vice-president at Williamson & Associates — a company who bid for the MH370 search contract — told Reuters.



A previous map indicating the MH370 search area. Source: Supplied 

Earlier this month, Australia, Malaysia and China agreed to widen the search area, to 120,000 sq km. It is unclear whether all teams involved will take part in the extended search area.

And now, as companies begin to pull major resources from the mission, the question over Australia’s input into the multi-million dollar project remains.

The Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), established by the Australian government to coordinate the search, confirmed the mission’s best search vessel, the Go Phoenix, armed with the most sought after deep sea search equipment, will pull out of the operation in a matter of weeks.



Humaam Dhonmamk, 17, looked up from his families backyard and points to where he saw a large plane fly low not far from his home on the tiny island of Kudahuvadhoo in the southern Maldives. Source: News Corp Australia 

Meanwhile, industry insiders agree it will be difficult to find the plane, with three agencies who were denied the initial MH370 contract all detailing their concerns to Australian authorities, Reuters reports.

They believe unless the vessels pass directly over the plane, the ship’s radars will be unable to locate it.

“I have serious concerns that the MH370 search operation may not be able to convincingly demonstrate that 100 per cent sea floor coverage is being achieved,” Mike Williamson, founder and president of Williamson & Associates told Reuters, who questioned the data being released by Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).
Australia took over the search mission in March 2014, three weeks after the flight’s disappearance.

The search area was determined after satellite data revealed where the plane was most likely to have crashed, after veering off course six hours before running out of fuel and crashing into the southern Indian Ocean.

MH 370 The theories
FOR 12 months, the world has waited and wondered about the fate of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 and the 239 onboard - a mystery so out of step with modern day technology no-one has been able to find it nor work out what happened.
Freak Fire
Sabotage
It Landed
Shot Down
Controls Hacked
Wild Weather
Pilot Suicide
Terrorists
Expert's View



MH370 search vessel Go Phoenix being resupplied in Fremantle to continue the search for the missing plane.. Source: Supplied   

Hmm...wonder how long it is before the Muppet again leaks to the Press?
[*]Simply Marvellous Horse-pooh - Beaker the media magnet.

[*]
[*]MTF...P2

Ps MIA Q/ Where the hell is Chris Manning??


Pps This is the sort of headline that Tony Abbott, Farmer Truss & his minion Beaker will be looking forward to from now on:

[*] 
[url=https://twitter.com/Thefinnigans/status/604228460530114561/photo/1][/url]