MH370 Malaysia is hoping that the fame earned from finding MH370 will draw out the best efforts of all parties, even commercial companies, and therefore make a monetary reward unnecessary, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said today.
After being missing for 59 days, the search operation for the Boeing 777 has found no wreckage but Hishammuddin said this was not due to any lack of effort. The incident, he emphasised again, was unprecedented and has already sparked the “imagination”.
“I don’t think we need to do that. The tragedy has caught the imagination of so many and I have no problem getting even commercial companies to come forward and help,” Hishammuddin told reporters in Canberra, Australia as the search enters a new, more expensive phase.
“No reward is big enough for anyone to find MH370. Anyone who finds MH370, it will make them the most famous company out there,” Hisham added as an afterthought, and grinned.
Hishammuddin spoke to the press after a tripartite meet with Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss and China's Transport Minister Yang Chuantang and other officials.
Wider and deeper search
Hishammuddin, Truss and Yang said at the press conference that the new search phase of MH370 would now go wider and deeper into the Indian Ocean.
It will also involve much fewer people and a handful of sophisticated robots to explore the unexplored ocean bottom would be needed.
"It is a matter of searching around as to what is available. I want to emphasise here that there is only a handful of relevant machines.
"These are vessels capable of mapping the sea. We have no vessel in the Australian navy that can map the ocean at that depth. We need support," Truss ( right ) said.
He said Australia estimates that the new phase, which may began in one to two months, may cost up to A$60 million as the equipment required were in private hands.
However, Hishammuddin said he was not ready to disclose the true budget.
‘Costs depend on the assets available’
"Before this new phase, all our partners have never raised any issue regarding cost. Costs now depend on assets available to the government, available commercially and the area to be searched. Experts have to advise us and the meeting starts on Wednesday," Hishammuddin said.
Calling the search "one of the most difficult ever undertaken anywhere in the world", Truss said nothing verifiable from Flight MH370 has been found in the Indian Ocean despite the Australian-led team trying hard for 41 days.
He said 4.6 million square kilometres have been scoured, with 334 flights made and more than 3,000 hours spent by the Perth-based Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC).
"Unfortunately, all efforts found nothing. We were confident that search area was the right one but in practice, that confidence has not converted into discovering any trace of the aircraft," Truss said.
Asked why the focus remained in the Indian Ocean, JACC heads Angus Houston said this was still the best lead, coming from a panel of aviation experts working in Kuala Lumpur.
However, "it is sensible to look back at all the data gathered and all analyses and make sure there are no flaws in that," Houston said.
Hishammuddin reiterated that he had nothing more to add to the preliminary report on the missing MH370 released last Thursday and batted away talk that the last recording between the flight and control tower may have been edited.
"Any request for information is open to all sorts of speculation. We will share, but let it be released by a team of experts that has been established.
"I have not got any info that (the recording) has been tampered with," Hishammuddin said.
He also urged people to stop laying blame for the loss of the Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 people onboard until the post-mortem inquiry reports come out.
Hishammuddin said the Malaysian police were still investigating the passengers and crew of MH370 and have not ruled out anything yet.
