Search for Malaysian plane enters third week

PERTH - Australian rescuers stepped up the search for Malaysian Flight MH370 as pressure mounted Saturday to find the missing plane that vanished two weeks ago and has defied the best efforts of modern technology to track it down.

Six planes, including four Orion anti-submarine aircraft packed with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, joined the search for debris from the aircraft over a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean, 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth.

Chinese, British and Australian naval ships were all steaming to the same area where two floating objects -- possibly plane wreckage -- were picked out on grainy satellite pictures.

With planes from China and Japan also expected to join the hunt, the sudden concentration of resources on the basis of such inconclusive evidence reflects growing desperation after 14 days of piecemeal progress.

There have been no sightings of interest since Thursday, when Australia released the satellite photos taken on March 16.

true
Angry Chinese relatives of the missing plane passengers raise their arms in protest during a press conference after a meeting with Malaysian officials in Beijing. PHOTO/AFP

true
Chinese plainclothes security block photos of a man trying to hand out leaflets to journalists with his theory about the missing jet at a hotel in Beijing. PHOTO/AFP

true
Chinese relatives of the missing plane passengers leave from a resort on a bus in Cyberjaya, outside Kuala Lumpur. PHOTO/AFP

Some experts warn the larger of the two objects -- measuring an estimated 24 metres (79 feet) across -- could be a shipping container, while Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss cautioned that any possible debris may have sunk.

"Something that was floating on the sea that long ago may no longer be floating. It may have slipped to the bottom," he said.

After Australian and Malaysian officials hailed the satellite images as the most "credible" lead to date, failure to find anything soon will be a body blow to a search operation already tainted by false leads and dead ends.

Cockpit 'transcript' published

Britain's Telegraph newspaper published what appeared to be the full transcript of communications with Flight MH370's cockpit crew up until the moment it dropped off civilian radar.

The transcript, which ended with the final words "All right, good night" -- believed to have been spoken by the co-pilot -- contained no fresh clues to what diverted MH370 from its intended flight path from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

Malaysian investigators have stuck to their assumption that it was the result of a "deliberate action" by someone on board.

Three scenarios have gained particular attention: hijacking, pilot sabotage, and a sudden mid-air crisis that incapacitated the flight crew and left the plane to fly on auto-pilot for several hours until it ran out of fuel and crashed.

Finding wreckage in the remote southern Indian Ocean would undermine the hijacking theory, which many of the relatives of the 227 passengers on board continue to cling to.

true
A RNZAF Orion takes off from Royal Australian Air Force Base Pearce in Bullsbrook, some 35 kms north of Perth. PHOTO/AFP

true
A crew member on a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion aircraft participating in the Australian Maritime Safety Authority-led search for the missing jet. CREDIT/AFP (Source: POOL)

true
Royal Australian Air Force Loadmasters, Sergeant Adam Roberts (L) and Flight Sergeant John Mancey (R), preparing to launch a Self Locating Data Marker Buoy from a C-130J Hercules aircraft in the southern Indian Ocean. CREDIT/AFP (Source: Autralian Defence)

Sarah Bajc, the partner of American passenger Philip Wood, voiced concern that the sudden focus on a particular section of the Indian Ocean was happening at the expense of a land search along a northern route the plane may have taken over South and Central Asia.

"I believe, and I think many people believe, the passengers are being held for some other purpose. But so far that doesn't seem to be listened to," Bajc told CNN.

"If there's a chance it was taken by an abductor of some sort, then we should be putting at least some of our resources towards looking on land," she added.

On Friday five planes, including military P3 Orions, criss-crossed 23,000-square kilometres (8,800-square miles) of ocean without any sightings of wreckage, and the search area has now been widened.

The distance from Australia's west coast allows the Orions only about two hours of actual search time before they must turn around with enough fuel to get back to Perth.

Ultra long-range jets search seas

Two ultra long-range commercial jets being used on Saturday can stay in the area for five hours.

"With any luck we'll find something shortly," said Australian Flight Lieutenant Russell Adams.

As it enters its third week, the search for MH370 has become one of the longest -- and certainly largest -- in modern aviation history.

true
A member of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue looks on as a helicopter flies over the waters during search operations in the Andaman sea area around northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island for the missing plane. PHOTO/AFP

true
Young Malaysian Muslim girls offer Friday prayers as they sit outside the Putra mosque in Putrajaya. PHOTO/AFP

true
A veiled Muslim woman (R) waits at a stall selling t-shirts in memory of the missing plane outside the Putra mosque in Putrajaya. PHOTO/AFP

No confirmed wreckage was ever found of a Korean Air jetliner that exploded in mid air over the Andaman Sea in 1987 as the result of a bomb placed on board by North Korean agents.

Expectations based on advances in technology, coupled with the modern era's relentless 24-hour media coverage, would seem to rule out public acceptance of the idea that MH370 will never be found.

"This is going to be a long-haul effort," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Friday.

Scott Hamilton, managing director of US-based aviation consultancy Leeham Co., said the investigation would simply continue for as long as it takes.

"This is, in all probability, a criminal act, and thereby presumed murder of more than 230 people," Hamilton said.

"Worse, if this is some kind of terror event that is a precursor to something bigger in the future, authorities will presumably do all they can to make this determination and work to prevent it -- whatever 'it' is," he added.

Malaysia has asked the FBI to help recover data it said was deleted from a home flight simulator belonging to the plane's chief pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, but otherwise no evidence has emerged to implicate him.

AFP