Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Medical and Hospital News .




DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Australia says cost not a concern in MH370 search
by Staff Writers
Perth, Australia (AFP) April 23, 2014


'Unidentified material' under investigation for MH370 link
Perth, Australia (AFP) April 23, 2014 - Authorities are investigating whether "unidentified material" washed up on the southwest coast of Australia has any link to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, officials said Wednesday.

"Western Australia Police have attended a report of material washed ashore 10 kilometres (six miles) east of Augusta and have secured the material," Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre said in a statement.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is examining photographs of the material to determine whether it has any links to the search for the missing jet, it added.

The bureau has provided photographs of the material to the Malaysian investigation team.

"It's sufficiently interesting for us to take a look at the photographs," ATSB Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan told broadcaster CNN, describing the object as appearing to be sheet metal with rivets.

But he added a note of caution. "The more we look at it, the less excited we get."

The Boeing 777 with 239 people aboard was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 when it mysteriously diverted.

It is thought to have crashed into the remote Indian Ocean off Western Australia, where a huge search is underway.

Australia said Wednesday cost was not a concern in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, after the mini-submarine plumbing the depths of the Indian Ocean for wreckage ended its ninth mission empty-handed.

Searchers were also investigating "unidentified material" which washed up on the country's southwest coast to see if it was linked to the Boeing 777, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard.

But officials cautioned it may be unconnected to the plane.

Australia is leading the multinational search, and bearing many of the costs of the mission expected to be the most expensive in aviation history.

"There will be some issues of costs into the future but this is not about costs," Defence Minister David Johnston told reporters in Canberra.

"We want to find this aircraft. We want to say to our friends in Malaysia and China this is not about cost, we are concerned to be seen to be helping them in a most tragic circumstance."

China, whose citizens made up two-thirds of the passengers, and Malaysia are among eight countries including Australia which have committed planes or ships to the Indian Ocean search.

The plane was mysteriously diverted during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

With no confirmed sightings of debris on the surface so far, the search moved underwater nearly two weeks ago but has yet to find any sign of the aircraft.

Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), which is organising the search, said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau was examining photographs of the material which washed ashore for any link to the missing jet.

"It's sufficiently interesting for us to take a look at the photographs," safety bureau Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan told broadcaster CNN, describing the object as appearing to be sheet metal with rivets.

But he added a note of caution. "The more we look at it, the less excited we get."

Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said searchers still believed the plane crashed in the Indian Ocean.

"Our expert advice is that the aircraft went down somewhere in the Indian Ocean where they have identified a probable impact zone which is about 700 kilometres (435 miles) long, about 80 kilometres wide," he said.

Abbott said based on the detections from what Australia still believed was the plane's black box flight recorder, an underwater search area of just under 400 square kilometres (154 square miles) was being scoured.

"We haven't finished the search, we haven't found anything yet in the area that we're searching, but the point I make is that Australia will not rest until we have done everything we humanly can to get to the bottom of this mystery," he said.

The JACC said the unmanned mini-submarine looking for the plane on the seabed had scanned more than 80 percent of its target zone using sonar and was now on its 10th dive.

"No contacts of interest have been found to date," it said.

The torpedo-shaped autonomous underwater vehicle called Bluefin-21 is searching an area at least 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) deep defined by a 10-kilometre radius around a detection of a signal believed to be from the black box and heard on April 8.

- 'Reasonable hope' -

A surface search involving up to 10 military aircraft and 12 ships was also scheduled for Wednesday.

JACC later suspended the air search due to bad weather, but said the ships would continue their work.

The visual hunt covers an area totalling about 37,948 square kilometres some 855 kilometres northwest of Perth.

Johnston said that if the Bluefin-21 failed to spot wreckage the search would move into a new phase, but Canberra was committed to the task.

"We move to the next phase which is a more intensive single sideband sonar-type programme, I suspect, but let's take advice of the experts as to where we go forward," he said.

Abbott said Australia would not abandon the search and let down the families of the six Australians and 233 other people on board "by likely surrendering while there is reasonable hope of finding something".

"At the moment we are conducting an underwater search with the best equipment that is currently available," he said.

"If at the end of that period, we find nothing, we are not going to abandon the search. We may well re-think the search, but we will not rest until we have done everything we can to solve this mystery."

.


Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Cyclone curtails aerial search for MH370
Perth, Australia (AFP) April 22, 2014
The aerial search for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 was suspended Tuesday due to a tropical cyclone, but not before several aircraft had departed on the mission, Australian officials said. Up to 10 military aircraft had been scheduled to fly over the Indian Ocean in hopes of spotting clues as to the fate of the Boeing 777, which vanished on March 8 carrying 239 people. "Planne ... read more


DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Death toll in US landslide rises to 41

President says ferry crew's actions 'tantamount to murder'

Guides, climbers cancel Everest expeditions after tragedy

Ant colonies help evacuees in disaster zones

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Russia's Glonass system fails second time in April

Facebook rolls out 'nearby friends' feature

Fifth Boeing GPS IIF Satellite Joins Global Positioning System

Satellite Navigation Failure Confirms Urgent Need for Backup

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Monkey study explores evolution of mathematic reasoning

Researchers say Neanderthals were no strangers to good parenting

Neanderthals and Cro-magnons did not coincide on the Iberian Peninsula

Evolution explains facial hair trends

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Stanford researchers rethink 'natural' habitat for wildlife

Peru probes killing of endangered penguins

Chimpanzees prefer firm, stable beds

Scientists discover oldest footprints outside of Africa

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
West Africa's Ebola outbreak prompts changes in I.Coast cuisine

New tool advances investigations of disease outbreaks

Mali remains free of deadly Ebola epidemic: government

Japan orders chicken cull after bird flu outbreak in south

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Thousands in China protest after officials beat vendor, passer-by: report

China court jails four anti-graft activists for protests

China is advancing Hu Yaobang reforms: state media

Thousands of workers strike at China shoe factory

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Vietnam says 7 killed in shooting on China border

Kidnappers demand $11 mln for Chinese tourist

Malaysia kidnappers telephone Chinese victim's family

China presses Malaysia to rescue kidnapped tourist

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
China cuts reserve requirements for rural banks

Cyber risks can cause disruption on scale of 2008 crisis: study

China sacks state firm head amid corruption allegations

Bitcoin exchange MtGox in administration, bankruptcy eyed




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.