Search for Missing Jet's Black Box Begins in Indian
Ocean
Crews searching for the missing Malaysian plane started underwater scouring of the southern Indian Ocean for pings emitted by the jet's black box, days before batteries that power its beacon are set to run out.
"We're now getting pretty close to the time when it might expire," said retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who heads Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre. "Using the towed pinger locator from the U.S. Navy on Australian defense vessel Ocean Shield and similar capability from HMS Echo, the two ships will search a single 240-kilometer (149-mile) track converging on each other."
The zone was determined using analysis based on data about the plane's flight path, Houston told reporters in Perth today. Recovering the data and cockpit-voice recorders in the black box would help in deciphering the plane's movements and pilots' actions in the air after contact was lost with Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS) Flight 370 on March 8.
Ten planes and nine ships are today combing an area of about 217,000 square kilometers, 1,700 kilometers north west of Perth in Western Australia, the JACC said in a statement. The batteries of black box pingers last for about 30 days.
The Boeing Co. (BA) 777-200ER, which was carrying 239 passengers and crew, was deliberately steered off its flight path to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur and the journey ended in the southern Indian Ocean, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has said.
Nuclear Submarine
Investigators have relied on limited contact between Flight 370 and an Inmarsat Plc (ISAT) satellite to draw up possible paths the plane took after it vanished from civilian radar. Planes and ships from Australia, Malaysia, China, the U.S., South Korea, New Zealand and Japan are taking part in the hunt, the longest in modern passenger-airline history between a disappearance and initial findings of debris.
"We've probably got to the end of the process of analysis and my expectation is, you know, we're into a situation where the data that we've got is the data that we've got," Houston said. "And we'll proceed on the basis of that."
Earlier this week, British nuclear submarine HMS Tireless joined the hunt for the missing aircraft. British survey ship HMS Echo is also conducting a sub-surface search, Houston said.
The HMS Echo, launched in 2002, can collect military hydrographic and oceanographic data and carries a detachment of marines, according to the British navy's website.
Costly Search
The search over the past four weeks is also costing a "lot of money," Houston said today, without giving a specific figure.
The U.S. military has spent more than $3.3 million on its role in the multinational hunt and may spend as much as $8 million before the search ends, Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters April 2. That included $148,000 the Navy spent to fly one P-8 Poseidon, now based in Perth, Australia.
So-called black boxes in aircraft are actually bright orange to help find them in wreckage. While designed to operate at depths of 20,000 feet (3.8 miles) and may work in even deeper water, the range of the beacons' pings is a mile, according to manuals from Honeywell International (HON) Inc., the maker of the equipment. That may make the signals difficult to pick up even if an underwater microphone is over the correct location.
Hearing Pingers
It can be difficult to hear the pingers if they are blocked by undersea mountains. Layers of water with different temperatures can also block sounds.
In the search for Air France Flight 447 wreckage, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil in 2009, authorities were able to narrow down a 5,000 nautical-mile area after finding floating objects five days following the crash. They also had a last known position plus four minutes of signals from the plane's so-called Acars system, which was turned off on Flight 370.
Even with those clues, the pings from Flight 447's recorders weren't picked up. It took two voyages over almost a two-year period to find the debris field with unmanned underwater vehicles.
Det spesielle med denne helikoptertypen er at den har dipping sonar. Dersom den har redningsheis og rescueman, så kan den plukke opp mindre gjenstander fra overflaten.
Crews searching for the missing Malaysian plane started underwater scouring of the southern Indian Ocean for pings emitted by the jet's black box, days before batteries that power its beacon are set to run out.
"We're now getting pretty close to the time when it might expire," said retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who heads Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre. "Using the towed pinger locator from the U.S. Navy on Australian defense vessel Ocean Shield and similar capability from HMS Echo, the two ships will search a single 240-kilometer (149-mile) track converging on each other."
The zone was determined using analysis based on data about the plane's flight path, Houston told reporters in Perth today. Recovering the data and cockpit-voice recorders in the black box would help in deciphering the plane's movements and pilots' actions in the air after contact was lost with Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS) Flight 370 on March 8.
Ten planes and nine ships are today combing an area of about 217,000 square kilometers, 1,700 kilometers north west of Perth in Western Australia, the JACC said in a statement. The batteries of black box pingers last for about 30 days.
The Boeing Co. (BA) 777-200ER, which was carrying 239 passengers and crew, was deliberately steered off its flight path to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur and the journey ended in the southern Indian Ocean, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has said.
Nuclear Submarine
Investigators have relied on limited contact between Flight 370 and an Inmarsat Plc (ISAT) satellite to draw up possible paths the plane took after it vanished from civilian radar. Planes and ships from Australia, Malaysia, China, the U.S., South Korea, New Zealand and Japan are taking part in the hunt, the longest in modern passenger-airline history between a disappearance and initial findings of debris.
"We've probably got to the end of the process of analysis and my expectation is, you know, we're into a situation where the data that we've got is the data that we've got," Houston said. "And we'll proceed on the basis of that."
Earlier this week, British nuclear submarine HMS Tireless joined the hunt for the missing aircraft. British survey ship HMS Echo is also conducting a sub-surface search, Houston said.
The HMS Echo, launched in 2002, can collect military hydrographic and oceanographic data and carries a detachment of marines, according to the British navy's website.
Costly Search
The search over the past four weeks is also costing a "lot of money," Houston said today, without giving a specific figure.
The U.S. military has spent more than $3.3 million on its role in the multinational hunt and may spend as much as $8 million before the search ends, Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters April 2. That included $148,000 the Navy spent to fly one P-8 Poseidon, now based in Perth, Australia.
So-called black boxes in aircraft are actually bright orange to help find them in wreckage. While designed to operate at depths of 20,000 feet (3.8 miles) and may work in even deeper water, the range of the beacons' pings is a mile, according to manuals from Honeywell International (HON) Inc., the maker of the equipment. That may make the signals difficult to pick up even if an underwater microphone is over the correct location.
Hearing Pingers
It can be difficult to hear the pingers if they are blocked by undersea mountains. Layers of water with different temperatures can also block sounds.
In the search for Air France Flight 447 wreckage, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil in 2009, authorities were able to narrow down a 5,000 nautical-mile area after finding floating objects five days following the crash. They also had a last known position plus four minutes of signals from the plane's so-called Acars system, which was turned off on Flight 370.
Even with those clues, the pings from Flight 447's recorders weren't picked up. It took two voyages over almost a two-year period to find the debris field with unmanned underwater vehicles.
Det spesielle med denne helikoptertypen er at den har dipping sonar. Dersom den har redningsheis og rescueman, så kan den plukke opp mindre gjenstander fra overflaten.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Helicopters Join MH370 Search Mission
Sikorsky Seahawk deployed to Western Australia to join massive fixed-wing effort.
A Royal Australian Navy Sikorsky S-70B2 Seahawk has joined the international search mission for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia.
On March 28, a Royal Australian Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster transported the Seahawk from HMAS Albatross, Nowra, NSW, to RAAF Base Pearce in Western Australia, from where the search is being coordinated. The Seahawk was transported to the search area by RAN Anzac-class frigate HMAS Toowoomba, which reached the area on April 1.
Loading the Seahawk. Photos courtesy of Royal Australian Navy
“We know this will be a tough and potentially challenging deployment but Toowoomba is capable and well-suited to this mission and our Seahawk helicopter will help us to maximize our reach,” says HMAS Toowoomba acting commanding officer Matt Doornbos.
Seven Chinese ships involved in the search effort or on their way are also believed to be carrying helicopters.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is coordinating the search effort, which on April 3 was centered on an area of about 223,000 square kilometers, some 1,680-km west-northwest of Perth.
An extensive fixed-wing fleet has been deployed to date, including two RAAF Lockheed Martin P3 Orions, two Malaysian Lockheed Martin C-130s, a Chinese Ilyushin Il-76, a U.S. Navy Boeing P8 Poseidon, a Japanese Gulfstream V, a Republic of Korea P3 Orion, a Royal New Zealand Air Force P3 and a Japanese P3 Orion, with a business jet providing a communications relay. On April 3, eight military aircraft and nine ships were involved in the search.
MH370, with 239 passengers and crew onboard, disappeared on March 8 on a scheduled service between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.
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