The Submarine Search for Missing Malaysia Mh370 Flight

Australian search officials may need to use a different underwater vehicle to scan the ocean floor for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, after the first submersible mission was cut short because the ocean floor appears to be more than 4,500m deep.

The head of Australia’s joint coordination centre, Angus Houston, announced on Monday that the Australian defence vessel Ocean Shield would no longer be using the towed pinger to attempt to locate noises from the black box of flight MH370 and would instead deploy a remote submersible, the Bluefin-21, to continue the search.

But the submersible’s mission was cut short after it exceeded the limits of its operation – 4,500m below sea level – and was forced to return to the surface, according to a release from the centre on Tuesday morning.

“After completing around six hours of its mission,Bluefin-21 exceeded its operating depth limit of 4,500 metres and its built in safety feature returned it to the surface,” the release said.

“The six hours of data gathered by the autonomous underwater vehicle is currently being extracted and analysed.”

The release indicates the water may be deeper than has been previously thought. On Monday Mark Matthews, the United States navy captain who oversees the use of the Bluefin-21, told Guardian Australia that if the vehicle exceeded its limits more than once it would no longer work.

New United Airlines Boeing 787-9 debut Melbourne-LAX

United Airlines' First Boeing 787-9 Rolls Out of Factory

Newest Dreamliner is longer, travels farther and carries more passengers

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CHICAGO, April 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines' first 787-9 Dreamliner rolled out of final assembly Tuesday evening at Boeing's Everett, Wash., facility. The rollout marks the first major milestone in the aircraft's production ahead of its expected delivery this summer. The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner is the second and newest member of the fuel-efficient 787 family.

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With the fuselage stretched 20 feet longer than the 787-8, United's 787-9 will fly more than 30 additional passengers and up to 300 nautical miles farther with the same exceptional environmental performance, including up to 20 percent less fuel burn per seat and up to 20 percent fewer emissions than similarly sized aircraft. The airline is the North American launch customer for the aircraft.

United Airlines has confirmed new non-stop flights from Melbourne to Los Angeles as the first route for its Boeing 787-9s, the new stretch version of the Dreamliner, in a move that should please passengers on both sides of the Pacific.

It represents a major upgrade in service from the US carrier, which had already announced plans to phase out its ageing 747s which lack seat-back in-flight entertainment in economy class from April. They will be replaced by newer 777s on the Melbourne-Sydney-Los Angeles and Sydney-San Francisco routes.

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United will launch the new six-day-a-week flights on October 28, subject to government approvals.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/united-airlines-to-fly-new-boeing-7879-dreamliners-on-melbourne-route-20140220-333u1.html#ixzz2yVqAwGjI

 

 

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Leaders Say Search Won't Stop

Leaders of the two countries heading multinational efforts to solve the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 pledged Thursday that no effort would be spared to give the families of those on board the answers they need.

[caption id="attachment_2038" align="alignnone" width="620"] Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, right, chats with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak at Perth International Airport as Razak prepares to depart Australia after his visit during the search of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, in Perth on Thursday. Najib met with Abbott and got a briefing by Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency co-ordinating the search. (Paul Kane/Associated Press)[/caption]

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak flew to Australia for briefings on the search for the missing plane and talks with his Australian counterpart, Tony Abbott, whose country is overseeing the hunt in a huge and remote patch of the Indian Ocean.

"It is a very difficult search — the most difficult in human history. But as far as Australia is concerned, we are throwing everything we have at it," Abbott said in a media appearance with Najib.

No trace of the Boeing 777 has been found nearly four weeks after it vanished in the early hours of March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

Ten planes and nine ships were involved in search operations Thursday, scouring the ocean far off Australia's southwest corner where investigators believe the plane may have ended up after unknown events occurred on board.

Najib, whose government has been harshly criticized by some victims' families for giving sometimes conflicting information about the flight and for the slow pace of the investigation, said everyone involved in the search is thinking of the families of victims who are waiting desperately for news.

"I know that until we find the plane, many families cannot start to grieve," Najib said. "I cannot imagine what they are going through. But I can promise them that we will not give up.