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Latest MH370 SIO operational update 

Operational Update


At the request of the Malaysian Government, Australia has accepted responsibility for the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is leading the underwater search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.

Joint Agency Coordination Centre

MH370 Operational Search Update

3 June 2015

This operational report has been developed to provide regular updates on the progress of the search effort for MH370. Our work will continue to be thorough and methodical, so sometimes weekly progress may seem slow.  Please be assured that work is continuing and is aimed at finding MH370 as quickly as possible.

Key developments this week

• Fugro Equator arrived back in the search area on 29 May and recommenced search operations.
  
• On 30 May, foul weather forced all three search vessels – GO Phoenix, Fugro Equator and Fugro Discovery - to retrieve their towfish, as the conditions prevented safe search operations. Search operations have not yet recommenced.
  
• Fugro Equator is using the hiatus to conduct bathymetric survey operations, mapping additional areas of the seafloor which may be incorporated into the search.
  
• The ATSB released a statement affirming the capabilities of the search operation. 
  
  

Underwater search

As announced in April, the search area has been expanded beyond an original 60,000 square kilometre search area to enable up to 120,000 square kilometres to be searched if required. In the absence of credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, Governments have agreed that there will be no further expansion of the search area.

Search operations have been modified and Fugro vessels have undergone winterisation to enable continuous search operations during winter, as well as to ensure that the required area is searched as quickly and effectively as possible. Over coming weeks, search operations will be focused in the south to take advantage of the last of the better weather in that area prior to the expected onset of continuous poor weather during winter. Safety of the search crews, as always, remains a priority and vessels and equipment utilised will vary to reflect operational needs, particularly during winter months.

Upon completion of the current swing, the current contract with Phoenix International will expire and GO Phoenix will cease search operations and transit to Singapore. This will occur near the end of June.

More than 50,000 square kilometres of the seafloor have been searched so far.

Click map to enlarge

[i]Click map to enlarge[/i]
 
The Search Strategy Working Group continues to review evidence associated with MH370 which may result in further refinement of, or prioritisation within, the search area.
In the event the aircraft is found and accessible, Australia, Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China have agreed to plans for recovery activities including securing all the evidence necessary for the accident investigation.

Weather
Conditions in the search area are currently rough, with average wave heights of over six metres. The weather is projected to deteriorate further over the coming days, with expected maximum wave heights reaching up to 12 metres before conditions improve. Search operations will continue through the winter months, but pauses are anticipated.

GO Phoenix experiences rough sea conditions in the southern Indian Ocean. The two blue shipping containers on the deck serve as portable workspaces, in which members of the search team conduct towfish operations and maintenance.


Source: Hydrospheric Solutions Inc, image by Ryan Galloway & Joshua Phillips.
 
GO Phoenix experiences rough sea conditions in the southern Indian Ocean. The two blue shipping containers on the deck serve as portable workspaces, in which members of the search team conduct towfish operations and maintenance.


Source: Hydrospheric Solutions Inc, image by Ryan Galloway & Joshua Phillips.
 

Check out those Go Phoenix pics all awash...not much fun..

Also from the New Strait Times Online today:

MH370: Search will not be expanded further, says Australia

SYDNEY: The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will not be expanded beyond its current search area unless there are specific new leads, Australian officials said today.

In April, more than a year after the plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 mostly Chinese people on board, Malaysia, Australia and China announced that the search zone would double in size.

This boosted the area of the remote southern Indian Ocean being scoured by three specialist vessels to 120,000 square kilometres (46,300 square miles).

But it will not be expanded any further, the Australian-led Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said in an update.

“In the absence of credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, governments have agreed that there will be no further expansion of the search area,” it said.

The hunt for the aircraft, which disappeared on March 8 last year, has been a complex undertaking, with Australia initially concentrating on a remote 60,000 square kilometre area of the ocean far off its west coast.

The zone was determined by analysing data from satellite signals which indicate the plane went down in the Indian Ocean after mysteriously diverting.

More than 50,000 square kilometres of the seafloor have been scoured so far with no trace of the jet, JACC said, and with the onset of winter and poor weather the operation is slowing down.

The deep underwater search, using sonar equipment after the ocean floor was closely mapped last year, is currently suspended with waves reaching up to 12 metres (39 feet), although ships remain on the scene.

It will continue once conditions improve but be scaled back with one of the vessels, GO Phoenix, ceasing operations and returning to Singapore near the end of June.

A fourth vessel previously involved in the search, Fugro Supporter, was withdrawn in May amid the worsening conditions.

“Safety of the search crews, as always, remains a priority and vessels and equipment utilised will vary to reflect operational needs, particularly during winter months,” JACC said.

“Search operations will continue through the winter months, but pauses are anticipated.”--AFP

Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre say search for missing MH370 will no be extended beyond its current search area unless there are specific new leads. File pic.

Australia’s Joint Agency Coordination Centre say search for missing MH370 will no be extended beyond its current search area unless there are specific new leads. File pic.

& from Planetalking...

MH370 search fleet to be halved as hopes of success fade

Ben Sandilands | Jun 03, 2015 4:45PM |


Why the crew working tow fish from GO Phoenix don't often step onto the deck for a break

The original four ship sea floor search fleet looking for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is about to be halved to two.

The latest search update found on the JACC and ATSB sites strikes a much more resigned tone that the cautiously optimistic commentary that came from the meeting between Malaysia, China and Australia in April at which it was agreed to double the search zone area if nothing was found by the end of May.

The imminent withdrawal of GO Phoenix at the end of its current contract means the task of using deep sea towed side scanning sonar devices will fall to two Fugro Discovery company vessels, and with bad southern winter weather taken into account and 50,000 square kilometres out of an enlarged 120,000 square kilometres area left to be searched, progress will be very slow.

Unless of course, the wreckage is at last found.

The latest bulletin segues into the bad news, burying the message that if nothing is found within the enlarged area, then it’s all over.

In the absence of credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, Governments have agreed that there will be no further expansion of the search area.

Amid all of the briefings that were captured by media reports in April during the tripartite search effort discussions, it was never put that bluntly.

The photo at the top of the page does however illustrate how bad the conditions in the enlarged search zone are expected to be during the southern hemisphere winter.  Those two blue shipping containers house the workplaces used for conducting and maintaining the tow fish operations from the wave battered deck of soon to withdraw GO Phoenix.

 
MTF...P2