Ex-DCA chief named MH370 'chief investigator'
Latest developments:
- China to dispatch more vessels to aid underwater search
Follow us as we bring the latest updates and coverage for the search of Flight MH370:
5.50pm: Former Department of Civil Aviation director-general Kok Soo Chon is appointed chief investigator for the international investigation team.
The team, which has commenced work, also consist of representatives from the following agencies:
- US National Transport Safety Board (NTSB), plus Boeing;
Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says that the team's mandate is to determine the cause of the incident and how to avoid it, but not to apportion blame or liability.
The probe will be done in accordance with Annex 13 - Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention).
"It is imperative for the government to form this independent team of investigators which is not only competent and transparent but also highly credible," he says in a statement.
Bay of Bengal claim 'not yet conclusive'
5.21pm: Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says that he has heard from the technical committee on the Bay of Bengal discovery, but cautions that it is not yet conclusive.
"Need to hear more experts tomorrow. Australia and China are doing the same," he says on Twitter .
Search crew leave Perth with end of aerial search
5pm: Bernama reports that Royal Malaysian Air Force's C-130 Hercules aircraft will return to Malaysia tonight as most military personnel leave the Royal Australian Air Force Pearce near Perth, following the calling off of air searches.
Meanwhile, according to CNN , more than 600 military personnel from at least seven countries posed solemnly by their planes for commemoration pictures and traded patches.
More will leave the air base in the next few days.
Japan was the first to announce it is pulling out of the air search, but acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein clarifies that the nation has still pledged commitment to assist in the next phase.
Malaysian families voice out frustrations
4.30pm: Long silent, Malaysian passenger and crew's next-of-kin, too have started to voice out disappointment over what is seen as investigators failure to answer their questions.
Free Malaysia Today reports that the families' "animosity" was evident at last week's meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin in Kuala Lumpur.
“They are just wasting our time. It’s as if they are hiding something,” says Nur Syafinaz, sister of flight attendant Mohamad Hazrin Mohamed Hasnan who was on board MH370.
“They can’t even answer a simple yes or no question. They treat us like as if we are stupid. How are we supposed to trust them when they can’t be honest with us?”
“At the same time, they were so arrogant. Some of the answers given to us were cocky. That was also why some of them got very angry."
Mohamad Hazrin's family also questions why authorities are forcing the families to acknowledge death certificates the state intends to issue and why the cargo manifest list cannot be revealed.
The Malaysian government has been under fire for alleged lack of transparency in the investigation by families of Indian, New Zealand, American and Chinese passengers, the last of which made up the bulk of those on board MH370.
New sub can reach greater depths
3pm: China will remain in the search operation as it enters the next phase, and will dispatch new vessels to support the underwater search efforts, the UK Mirror reports.
According to China's Maritime Search and Rescue Centre, Chinese vessel Haixun 01 and Navy vessels 999, 171 and 886 are still searching waters west of Australia while Navy vessel 863 will continue searching the eastern Indian Ocean.
Meanwhile, BBC reports that investigators will deploy Autosub6000 to do the underwater search. It has a maximum operating depth of 6,000 metres, far exceeding that of the Bluefin-21.
Hisham: Too many false leads in the past
2.37pm: According to acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, the MH370 technical committee will follow up claims by an Australian exploration firm that it found elements consistent with Boeing 777 plane in the Bay of Bengal, some 5000 kilometres away from the current search area.
"I will not comment on it until there is confirmation...in the past there were oil slicks, satellite images of wreckage in the South China Sea, but proved to be untrue.
"I'm meeting with the technical committee in a while...if they say we will proceed with the lead, then we will," he is reported as saying by The Malay Mail Online when asked of the 7News Australia report on GeoResonance's findings yesterday.
The claim by exploration company GeoResonance that it spotted items consistent with a Boeing 777 at the Bay of Bengal is also raising questions over earlier leads.
In particular, Astro Awani questions if what Raja Dalelah Raja Latife, 53, who last month claimed she saw debris while flying over the Andaman Sea near China from Jeddah, had seen were in fact parts of the plane.
Hisham: Japan wants in on expert panel
1.16pm : Following Japan's announcement that it is pulling out of the search, Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein announces that it has requested to join the international panel of expert investigators being put together by Malaysia, Berita Harian reports.
Quoting Hishammuddin, who is also acting transport minister, the daily further reports that Malaysia will discuss with Australia on how to split the cost of private contractors to be hired to scour the sea bed in the next phase of the search.
Australia is leading the multinational ocean search and recovery operations.
Expanded search area deeper
11:39am: With the underwater search set to expand, scouring the ocean floor is expected to be a technological challenge as even a few kilometres north of where the underwater drone Bluefin-21's is currently searching can be as deep as more than 5,000 metres deep.
Some areas, the Wall Street Journal reports, can be as deep as 7,000 metres, far deeper than the Bluefin-21's 4,500-metre capacity.
There are also questions over whether investigators had misread the location from where the pings it heard three weeks ago were emitted. The pings were believed to be from the plane’s black box transponders.
University of Western Australia head oceanographer Charitha Pattiaratchi says that at extreme depths and temperature changes, the speed of sound can change.
To compound the matter, Pattiaratchi says the seabed could comprise up to three metres of ancient compact mud made from plankton.
Search now focussing on wider underwater area
11am: To recap, after searching 4.5 million square kilometres of the Indian Ocean surface for a total 3000 hours, Australia, which is leading the physical search, called off the air search, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott ( right ) deeming it “highly unlikely” any floating debris will be found.
The search efforts will now enter a new phase, focused on a wider underwater search in an area which spans 700 kilometres by 80 kilometres, and ideally eight months to cover.
This will be done with the help of commercial contractors, as a cost of AU$60 million (RM181.12 million), and other technologies to aid the US Navy’s Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle. Among technologies considered is a towed sonar.
The seabed in the expanded search area is covered in silt, but investigators believe that even if the wreckage has sunk in deep silt, some debris will be found on the floor bed.
Japan pulls out aircraft as surface search scaled back
10am: Japan announces that it is pulling out of the search, Kyodo News reports.
Visiting defence minister Itsunori Onedera ( right ) tells this the Japanese defence force staff deployed to Perth after Australia's announcement that air search will be called off due to poor likelihood of debris surfacing.
Japan had contributed two aircraft to the close to two-month effort, which will now enter a new phase of deep underwater search.
Background:
- The Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200ER aircraft went missing not long after taking off from KL International Airport in the early hours of March 8, with 12 crew members and 227 passengers.
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