Storms ground search as families seek closure
Crew members aboard a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion aircraft observe navigation maps as they search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over the southern Indian Ocean on March 27, 2014. Australia said on April 10, 2015 it was buying two long-distance C-17 Globemaster planes in an Aus$1 billion (US$770 million) procurement that will boost its military and disaster relief operations worldwide. FILE PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
- There have been instances when someone is lost in the jungle and is believed to have died but comes out alive
- The Thai report was the second in two days suggesting a possible debris field from the crashed jet in the stormy southern Indian Ocean.
PERTH
Thunderstorms and gale-force winds grounded the international air search for wreckage from Flight MH370 Thursday, frustrating the effort again as Thailand reported a satellite sighting of hundreds of floating objects.
The Thai report was the second in two days suggesting a possible debris field from the crashed jet in the stormy southern Indian Ocean.
But a major air and sea search has frustratingly failed so far to secure any wreckage confirmed to have come from the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane which went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board.
Planes and ships have faced fierce winds and sometimes mountainous seas as they hunt for hard evidence that the plane crashed, as Malaysia has concluded.
On Tuesday the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) called off both the air and sea search.
The agency Thursday suspended the air search because of worsening weather after it had got under way, but said ships would try to continue.
“Bad weather expected for next 24 hours,” it tweeted.
Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency said it had satellite images taken on Monday of 300 objects, ranging in size from two to 15 metres.
It said they were scattered over an area about 2,700 kilometres southwest of Perth, but could not confirm they were plane debris.
The agency said the objects were spotted about 200 kilometres away from an area where French satellite images earlier showed objects.
Malaysia said late Wednesday that the French images taken Sunday showed 122 floating objects including some as long as 23 metres.
The Boeing 777 is presumed to have crashed after mysteriously diverting from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing path and apparently flying for hours in the opposite direction.
DELIBERATELY REDIRECTED
Malaysia believes the plane was deliberately redirected by someone on board, but nothing else is known.
A total of nine planes from Australia, China, Japan and New Zealand took part in Thursday’s aborted search, the Malaysian transport ministry said, along with five Chinese ships and an Australian warship.
Meanwhile, the failure to recover bodies is complicating efforts to lay their souls to rest, relatives and religious leaders said on Thursday.
“I will not do any solemn prayers until I am really convinced my son is dead,” said Subramaniam Gurusamy, 60, a Malaysian Hindu whose son was on the plane.
“How can we say everyone is dead when we have not found the plane or the black box?” he added, referring to the trove of on-board flight data that is being sought for clues to what happened.
“There have been instances when someone is lost in the jungle and is believed to have died but comes out alive after many years.” The Malaysia Airlines flight went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.
Malaysia believes it crashed in the southern Indian Ocean but no wreckage has yet been found, despite an ongoing multi-nation search.
