29 March 2014

Moving the search


The BBC has an article about the on-going plane search:
A plane has spotted "objects" in a new area of the Indian Ocean being searched for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, Australian officials say. The sightings will need confirmation by ship, which is not expected until tomorrow, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said.
Earlier it was announced the search would now focus on an area seven hundred miles north-east of the previous zone.
The identity of the objects, spotted by a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion (photo), were "to be established", AMSA said.
Satellite images seen so far could show anything from lost shipping containers or drifting garbage to fragments of Flight MH370.
Among ocean experts, opinion differs over how much non-plane debris is in the area of the Southern Indian Ocean, one of world's least-researched areas.
In absence of better data, retrieving floating debris can help narrow search for "black box" recorders But shortage of live satellite data, turbulence, and passage of time since the flight's disappearance hampers the search for debris
The crew said they had spotted eleven unidentified objects, the BBC's Phil Mercer reports from the western Australian city of Perth. The images hold out the prospect of up-to-date information, as opposed to satellite images which are invariably days out of date by the time they are seen by investigators.
Earlier, the Australian and Malaysian governments said the focus on the new search area was based on further analysis of radar data that showed the plane had been travelling faster, thus burning more fuel. Search efforts had, until Friday morning, focused on an area some fifteen hundred miles) to the south-west of the Australian city of Perth.
Rico says this is all taking far too long...

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