30 May 2014 - It's been over 11 weeks since Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing, and it is likely that it will be two months or more before a search of the Indian Ocean for the missing 777 will resume. Among the recent highlights are the following:
- The Malaysian government, specifically the Ministry of Transport, has released very detailed data about the information from Inmarsat that was used to narrow the search area.
- While some recent media reports have cited unofficial sources that have suggested that acoustic signals heard several weeks ago were not from the aircraft (a discovery that led to an extensive underwater search in the area of the pings), there has yet to be any official announcement from the investigating authorities.
The Australian government has concluded that the search in the vicinity of the acoustic detections is complete, and that general area (about 850 square kilometers) is now being discounted as the final resting place of MH370.
- The Australian government, which is leading the search for the aircraft on behalf of the Malaysian government, has suspended its active search for the aircraft, and is planning an extensive mapping effort of an area of the Indian Ocean that is about 60,000 square kilometers, or about the size of the state of West Virginia, or the nation of Sri Lanka.
- The mapping effort will take about three months, and the Australia Transport Safety Bureau, which is leading the search effort, plans to resume the search for the aircraft in August.
Resources
29 May 2014 update from the Australian JACC
ATSB determination of search area
Ocean mapping effort
Satellite communications logs
Additional information from the Ministry of Transport
AirSafe.com MH370 page
It may sound bizarre, and you might think I'm in the nuts category, but I would not discount the Northern route. After all, what else is there to go by?
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