MH370 Today marks the beginning of the sixth month since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing with all 239 persons on board.
Despite what is already billed as the most expensive search operation in aviation history, there is still no trace of the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. Nor is there any trace of its crew, passengers or cargo.
Nevertheless, the search goes on despite all the difficulties – with the only clues being small variations in the radio frequency the aircraft used to communicate with an overhead satellite, which in turn only provided vague hints of the aircraft’s direction and position.
According Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) chief Martin Dolan, there are some 1,000 possible flight paths that MH370 could have taken in its final hours over the Southern Indian Ocean.
The UK newspaper The Telegraph today quoted Dolan as saying that the ATSB has a “reasonably clear picture” of the plane’s final trajectory, based on an extensive analysis of the scant data available.
“There is an infinite possible number of tracks that the aircraft could have flown along, but for practical purposes there are about 1,000... from the point of its turning south,” he reportedly told the daily.
Two ships are currently surveying the ocean floor to provide the maps that would help plan the next round of search operations.
Dolan told The Telegraph that once the search kicks off again at the end of the month, the first areas searched would be the “high probably tracks”.
Two ships still in the search
However, in the meantime, the 60,000-square-kilometre stretch of ocean that ATSB had identified as a “priority search area” in June has reportedly expanded to 100,000sq-km, with a “range of priority areas”, according to the report.
The two ships currently carrying out the bathymetric survey are the Chinese navy vessel Zhukezhen and the Australian-contracted vessel Fugro Equato r.
According to The Telegraph , the Malaysian-contracted vessel GO Phoeni x is to arrive in the week beginning Sept 22 - about a fortnight from now - to start a new phase of the search operations.
A second vessel, Fugro Discovery , has been sailing from the United Kingdom and will be joining the operation in the week of Oct 13.
In early November, Fugro Equator will finish its mapping mission and join in the search effort as well.
Meanwhile, Dolan said experts in the UK, Australia and France would continue to analyse data and run simulations based on MH370’s satellite communications, in the hope of further narrowing the search area.
However, ripples from the missing MH370 are not just confined to the countries, families and the airline involved. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is due to submit proposals on how to improve flight tracking by the end of this month.
This industry-led effort is backed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in the hope that it would speed up the adoption of new flight tracking standards, especially in the remote corners of the world.
Chinese relatives mark loss at temple
Meanwhile in Beijing, families of Chinese passengers aboard MH370 marked the sixth month of their loss with an emotional gathering of about 30 people at the Lama Temple, according to a report by news agency AFP.
Coincidentally, today is also the Mid-Autumn Festival on the Chinese calendar, which is also a time for reunion.
“In China, today is Family Reunion Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival. Every day is torture, but today we're suffering even more,” a woman identified only by her surname Zhang was quoted as saying at the gathering.
“I'm calling on the kind people of the world to hurry up and rescue my child,” another person reportedly pleaded.
The report also said that passenger’s relatives in China were complaining of harassment by the Chinese authorities, including alleged arrests and beatings by the police when they showed up at Malaysia Airline’s Beijing office to demand for answers.
In Malaysia, AFP said, relatives expressed frustration at the lack of answers as well.
“Six months on we are no closer to the truth, we are no closer to any closure. We are in limbo...
“A lot of people say, 'It's been six months. It's time to move on.' But I can't. How do you expect me to move on?” Jacquita Gonzales, the wife of flight supervisor Patrick Gomes was quoted as saying.
Of the 237 persons who were lost with MH370, 152 are from China and 50 from Malaysia. The two nationalities make up the bulk of those who went missing on the flight.
The remainder hail from 13 other countries and territories, including Indonesia, France, Iran, Australia, Ukraine, Russia, India and the United States.
