DAY 76

Latest developments:

  • Director promises MH370 movie will not affect families

 

  • Govt to look into families’ concerns over preliminary report

    •  

  • Ministerial committees takeover MH370 press conferences

    • Follow us as we bring the latest updates and coverage for the search of Flight MH370:

    Book is insensitive, says JACC chief

    6.45pm: Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief Angus Houston joins in on condemning the book Flight MH370: The Mystery , saying that it is disappointing and insensitive.

    “The families have gone through an incredibly traumatic time over the last two-and-a-half months,” Sky News Australia quoted him as saying today, during an interview with the state broadcaster ABC.

    “To be putting books out at this stage is very premature.

    “There's still a long way to go with the search, and of course, if we eventually find the aircraft, the investigation into what actually happened,” he said.

    Just yesterday, Australian news anchor Karl Stefanovic lambasted the book’s author, Nigel Cawthorne, during a televised interview with him, describing the book and its contents as “too soon” and “disgusting”.

    Director: Movie audience in India very intelligent

    3.15pm: Film director Rupesh Paul denies taking advantage of the MH370 tragedy to make a quick buck out of his upcoming film ‘The Vanishing Act’, saying that the movie audience in his country India are “very intelligent”.

    “When you make movies for such an audience, no one knows what they may like or may not like.

    “As for me, I have received more love than backlash from the people. In fact, overwhelming love,” he reportedly tells The Star .

    He said the movie, which will be a thriller based on the MH370 incident, will not be exploitative and will not affect the families of the passengers.

    Since announcing his intention to release the film in September, Rupesh has been criticised as “insensitive”, “ruthless”, and “sick”, among others, by families of those on board MH370 and netizens commenting on the movie trailer.

    Angus Houston defends budget for search efforts

    2.30pm: Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief Angus Houston ( left ) defends the A$89.9 million (RM266.9 million) budget that the Australian government has set aside for the MH370 search efforts, amid criticism from a senate backbencher.

    “I think these circumstances are quite extraordinary and I think it’s absolutely imperative that we be involved to the maximum extent possible to try and find the aircraft in the first instance, and then assist the Malaysians with determining what happened to the aircraft. I have no difficulty with that.

    “The focus must be on continuing the search and doing the oceanographic survey, the bathymetric (seabed) survey, to enable the deepwater search along the defined search area. And that should be our focus at this stage,” the newspaper The Australian quotes him as saying in an interview with ABC TV today.

    Senator Cory Bernardi had reportedly warns Australia against bearing the entire cost of the search and share the burden instead.

    Houston responds that he expects the cost to be shared “eventually” but emphasises that the MH370’s suspected crash site falls within Australia's "area of search and rescue responsibility".

    Bluefin back in the water

    2.15pm: The Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is now back in the water after being out of action for nearly a week, says the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC).

    It had resumed search operations since 2am this morning, and will continue the search until May 28 in the area where pings consistent with black box pingers were detected in April.

    “This continues the process that will ultimately enable the search team to discount or confirm the area of the acoustic signals as the final resting place of MH370,” the JACC says in a statement.

    It will then start its journey aboard the Australian vessel ADV Ocean Shield back to a military port in Fremantle on May 31 to be "demobilised".

    Bluefin-21, which had been scanning the seafloor for signs of debris, was damaged on May 13 when it collided with Ocean Shield while being hoisted aboard the ship and had to be returned to shore for repairs.

    Meanwhile, the JACC says the Chinese survey vessel Zhukezhen has departed Fremantle yesterday to begin its bathymetric survey, while the Chinese patrol vessel Haixun 01 will support the survey operation by transporting the survey data back to Fremantle weekly for Geoscience Australia to analyse.

    “The bathymetric survey - or mapping of the ocean floor - is being done in preparation for a commercially contracted deep ocean search, including towed side-scan sonar operations,” it says.

    Anwar’s claim ‘demonstrably false’

    1.15pm: PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim’s claim that MH370’s cargo manifest had been deleted is "demonstrably false" and is an attempt to exploit the tragedy to damage Malaysia’s reputation for political mileage, says a government spokesperson.

    This is because the government has already released the manifest on May 1, the unnamed spokesperson says in a statement yesterday.

    Read more here .

    Hisham: I'll look into families' concerns

        

    10am: Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says he will be looking into the concerns raised by the families of MH370 passengers in their analysis of the government’s preliminary report of the incident.

    “(I) have asked for the list,” he says in a Twitter posting last night when asked if he will be addressing the 18-page analysis released yesterday.

    The families group Finding Philip Wood had called for an interim report to clarify supposed confusions in the preliminary report to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and address issues that are not mentioned in the report.

    Hishammuddin further tweets that from now on, he will no longer hold press conferences to provide updates on the MH370 search efforts.

    “The four ministerial committees will have their own (press conferences) from now on,” he informs.

    The four committees are each headed by a deputy minister, and are tasked with handling the next-of-kin of those onboard MH370 victims, deployment of search assets, crash investigation, and communications.

    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.

     

  • Authorities have determined that the plane intentionally turned back shortly after cutting communications with tower controllers for unknown reasons and, based on satellite data, have estimated its last position to be in the south Indian Ocean.

    •  

  • Australia leads the search in the south Indian Ocean. As of March 30, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) is tasked with overseeing the operations, led by retired air marshal and former defence chief Angus Houston.

    •  

  • The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 was deployed on April 14 to conduct an undersea search where the Australia Defence Vessel Ocean Shield had picked up two pings similar to black boxes on April 5 and two more on April 8 but failed to reacquire them again with the pinger locator.

    •  

  • However, by April 28, with no sign of the wreckage, authorities announced the search will move on the next phase, which will focus on a larger and deeper area of the sea floor, while the aerial search is ceased.