MH370: Black box search to begin (Updated)

Equipment designed to locate the vital black box is being shipped to the search area but searchers haven 't yet found the debris need to narrow down the missing Malaysian aircraft's location.

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If you are an English learner and you have been following our MH370 coverage, you will notice that each day it is getting easier. There are some new words every day, but there are also many more words that we have covered before, making the story easier to understand and the vocabulary easier to remember.

Monday morning

Search for MH370 'black box' to get underway

PERTH, Australia, AFP — An Australian ship carrying equipment to locate the "black box" from flight MH370 was to put to sea Monday but experts warned surface debris must be found first to narrow down the search zone.

The hunt for physical evidence that the Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 239 people crashed more than three weeks ago, as Kuala Lumpur has declared, has so far proved fruitless despite a massive operation involving seven countries.

Hopes raised by debris sightings have repeatedly been crushed as the items turned out to be random sea junk such as fishing gear.

More objects were seen by aircraft on Sunday with several items retrieved by Australia's HMAS Success and China's Haixun 01, but the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said: "Nothing has yet been verified as being from MH370."

The growing search resumed Monday across a sweeping expanse of the southern Indian Ocean the size of Norway, with 10 planes taking to the skies from Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, South Korea and the US.

Ten ships are also now scouring the desolate seas 1,850 kilometres  west of Perth for clues, with seven from China, two from Australia and a merchant vessel. AMSA warned that "some parts of the search area will experience low cloud and rain throughout the day".

Australia's Ocean Shield, fitted with a US-supplied black box detector, known as a towed pinger locator, and an autonomous underwater vehicle that can comb the seabed using electronic sensors, was also to leave Perth.

But Captain Mark Matthews of the US Navy, who was involved in the search for an Air France jet which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, said the crash site must be identified first to allow any pings from the recorder to be located.

"It is critical that we find that surface debris so we can reduce the area that we'd need to conduct an underwater search in," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

With MH370 vanishing on March 8 and a black box usually giving off signals for 30 days there are fears that it could already be too late with Ocean Shield taking up to three days to get to the area, although Matthews said the pinger could last up to 15 days longer than that.

Saturday's story

Saturday morning

MH370 search looks for debris breakthrough in new area

PERTH, Australia — AFP  Searchers scouring the Indian Ocean for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 were hoping Saturday to salvage debris for the first time which could finally confirm whether the jet plunged into the sea.

Planes attached to the multinational operation spotted "multiple objects" floating in the water on Friday after the focus of the search moved to a new area on the strength of fresh data indicating the plane was flying faster than first thought before it disappeared on March 8.

Authorities stressed that the items sighted could not be verified as coming from MH370 until they were physically examined and ships from China and Australia were steaming to the search zone in an effort to locate them.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said late Friday that one Chinese ship, the Haixun 01, was already in the area "and will be in a position to relocate the objects on Saturday".

By late Friday, the Haixun 01 had reported no sightings except for "a few light-coloured, palm-size floating objects", official state news agency Xinhua said.

An Australian naval vessel, HMAS Success, is also expected to reach the area late Saturday and four more Chinese ships are on their way. More than two-thirds of the 239 people on board the flight were Chinese.

New Zealand Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Short said spotters from a New Zealand Orion plane saw 11 objects in the sea, most of them rectangular and ranging in size from 50-100 centimetres.

"Our crew couldn't identify anything that would say it was definitely from the Malaysian aircraft," he said. "I think the main issue is that those objects will have to be picked up by a ship so they can physically examine them."

Ten aircraft from six countries – Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States – are involved in the search, which is taking place far off Western Australia and about 1,100 kilometres northeast of where initial efforts were focused.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the new search area, "although more focused than before, remains considerable; and the search conditions, although easier than before, remain challenging".

The revised search sector – about the size of Norway – was "based on continuing analysis of radar data between the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca before radar contact was lost (with MH370)", AMSA said.

"It indicated that the aircraft was travelling faster than previously estimated, resulting in increased fuel usage and reducing the possible distance the aircraft travelled south into the Indian Ocean."

The new area is closer to land, meaning planes can spend more time searching before having to return to refuel, and enjoys better weather than seas further south where the search had been concentrated.

Friday stories

Friday morning

11:30

Planes race to fresh MH370 search zone after 'credible new lead'

Planes and ships raced Friday to a fresh search zone after a "credible new lead" that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was flying faster than first thought before it plunged into the remote Indian Ocean.

Ten aircraft from six countries – Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States – altered their flight paths to an area 1,100 kilometres northeast of where they have been looking for a week, far off western Australia.

Five Chinese ships and an Australian naval vessel were also steaming to the new zone of interest after the weather cleared following the suspension of the search on Thursday due to thunderstorms and high winds, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said.

"The new information is based on continuing analysis of radar data between the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca before radar contact was lost," AMSA said.

"It indicated that the aircraft was travelling faster than previously estimated, resulting in increased fuel usage and reducing the possible distance the aircraft travelled south into the Indian Ocean."

9:25

The early morning weather forecast for the search area calls for good visibility and much lighter winds for today and tomorrow, so searchers are aiming to put in at least two full days of work.

Planes chase satellite sightings of suspected debris

PERTH, AFP — Planes and ships were to resume the hunt Friday for wreckage of flight MH370 after the weather cleared, as they chase down more satellite sightings of suspected debris nearly three weeks after the jet crashed.

Sorties being flown by planes from Australia, China, Japan and the United States were forced back to Perth on Thursday as thunderstorms and gale force winds swept through the southern Indian Ocean, although five ships stayed put.

There were fears that the weather would set in, but the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said the search would start again.

"The MH370 search will resume this morning," it tweeted in the increasingly desperate quest to confirm that debris sighted by satellite came from the Malaysia Airlines jet that vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board.

The resumption follows Thailand reporting Thursday a satellite sighting of hundreds of floating objects. Japan also announced that a satellite analysis indicated around 10 square floating objects in a similar area, the Kyodo news agency said.

They were the second sightings in two days suggesting a possible debris field from the Boeing 777.

As well as planes from six nations, five ships from China and Australia have joined the search, battling fierce winds and sometimes mountainous seas as they look for hard evidence that the plane crashed, as Malaysia has concluded.

The commanding officer of Australia's HMAS Success, Captain Allison Norris, said she had instituted hourly shift changes to make sure nothing is missed in the vast and remote stretch of ocean notorious for rapidly changing weather conditions.

"Morale remains good, despite the cold conditions," she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

The United States said it was sending a second P-8 Poseidon aircraft to Perth, but would not be dispatching a warship.

"We believe – and just as importantly, the Malaysian government believes – that the most important asset that we have that we can help them with are these long-range maritime patrol aircraft," said Rear Admiral John Kirby.

Thursday's stories

18:00

Bad weather hit rather early today, forcing a halt to reconnaissance flights.

Meanwhile, the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency of Thailand's Ministry of Science and technology (GISTDA) has contributed satellite images to the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Taken on March 24, 2014 from the country's only earth observation satellite and released on March 27, they show about 300 floating objects in the southern Indian Ocean, thought to possibly be part of missing Boeing 777 MH370, an official said on March 27. The objects, ranging from two to 15 metres (6.5 to 50 feet) in size, were scattered over an area about 2,700 kilometres (1,680 miles) southwest of Perth.

Bad weather forecast as new images spur MH370 search

PERTH, Australia, AFP — Thunderstorms and gale-force winds threatened to impede a frantic international search Thursday for wreckage from Flight MH370 after satellite images of more than 100 floating objects sparked fresh hopes of a breakthrough.

Malaysia said the imagery taken in recent days by a French satellite showed "122 potential objects" in the remote southern Indian Ocean, although nothing has yet been pulled from the treacherous seas despite a multinational recovery operation.

Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has cautioned that it was impossible to determine whether the objects were related to the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 which crashed on March 8 with 239 people aboard after mysteriously disappearing.

But the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the search some 2,500 kilometres southwest of Perth, said they were in an area authorities have pinpointed as a potential crash zone.

"Positions in the satellite information released by Malaysia Remote Sensing Agency were within Wednesday's search area," it said as a fleet of planes prepared to head for the search zone once again before the weather worsens.

Six military planes from Australia, Japan and the United States will fly sorties throughout the day, along with five civil aircraft, AMSA said, in an increasingly frantic hunt for clues to exactly what happened.

The plane deviated inexplicably off its intended course between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, flying thousands of kilometres in the wrong direction, before plunging into the sea. Malaysia believes the plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board.

Five ships are also in the search zone, including Australia's HMAS Success and Chinese vessels Xue Long, Kuulunshan, Haikon and Qiandaohu.

But they are operating in a wild expanse of ocean described by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott as "close to nowhere as it's possible to be" where gale-force winds and towering waves are routinely whipped up.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology warned the weather was expected to deteriorate later Thursday.

"Potentially thunderstorms down there as well as winds picking up, and they could get to gale force conditions," said bureau spokesman Neil Bennett.

Wednesday's story

Search back on for MH370 wreckage

PERTH, AFP — The search for wreckage of crashed Flight MH370 resumed Wednesday after the weather improved, with Chinese ships and Korean planes joining the hunt over a vast stretch of the Indian Ocean.

Gale force winds, rain and big waves prevented any sorties being flown on Tuesday but 12 aircraft will be in the air Wednesday while Australia's HMAS Success plans to conduct a surface sweep of an area where two objects were spotted this week.

China's polar supply ship Xue Long was also due in the area, with other Chinese vessels on their way, as the search intensifies for the Malaysian Airlines jet that crashed into the sea after vanishing on March 8 with 239 passengers on board.

"Today's search is split into three areas within the same proximity covering a cumulative 80,000 square kilometres," said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the search.

"AMSA has tasked a total of 12 aircraft today to search for possible objects in the search area."

Seven of them are military planes and five civilian.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the search would continue until there was no hope of finding anything.

"We are just going to keep on looking because we owe it to people to do everything we can to resolve this riddle," he told the Nine Network.

"It is not absolutely open-ended but it is not something we will lightly abandon."

Six countries are now assisting in the operation – Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Japan, China and South Korea – to help bring some closure to relatives with definitive physical proof of the plane's destruction.

The US Navy has also sent a specialised device to help find the "black box" of flight and cockpit voice data, along with a robotic underwater vehicle that can scan the ocean's depths.

Before the weather halted operations on Tuesday hopes had been high that wreckage would be found after two new objects – a green circular item and an orange rectangular one – were spotted on Monday by an Australian military plane.

This followed larger "white and square" objects seen by a Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 reconnaissance plane, which came after satellite images and data captured by Australia, China and France showed indistinct items in the southern Indian Ocean

Mark Binskin, vice chief of Australia's Defence Force, underscored the daunting size of the area under scrutiny by air crews flying exhausting sorties out of Perth.

"We're not trying to find a needle in a haystack, we're still trying to define where the haystack is," he told reporters on Tuesday.

Tuesday's stories

Malaysia says missing jet crashed at sea

KUALA LUMPUR, AFP — Malaysia said Monday its missing airliner had crashed in the Indian Ocean, extinguishing the hopes of relatives of those on board but shedding no light on why it veered so far off course.

A sombre Prime Minister Najib Razak said a new analysis of satellite data on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370's path placed its last position in remote waters off Australia's west coast, "far from any possible landing sites."

"It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean," Najib said.

The plane went missing on March 8 with 239 people aboard – two thirds of them Chinese – en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

A text message sent to relatives ahead of Najib's announcement said that "we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived".

The announcement touched off deep despair among relatives in both cities.

"What can I say? I had the belief that my son would return home safely. But what can be done?" said Subramaniam Gurusamy, whose 34-year-old son was on board.

"This is fate. We must accept it," he said, his voice choking with emotion.

In Beijing, family members who have gathered in a hotel during the agonising 17-day wait for information were crushed by the announcement.

Some began sobbing uncontrollably, held by fellow family members, while others collapsed and were taken away on stretchers.

"For them, the past few weeks have been heartbreaking; I know this news must be harder still," Najib said in Kuala Lumpur.

The premier said Monday's conclusions were reached based on new analysis of satellite data by Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), and the satellite telecommunications firm Inmarsat.

He gave no specifics such as precisely where the plane may have been lost.

Numerous recent sightings of suspected debris, by satellites as well as aircraft criss-crossing the region, had fuelled the belief that the plane crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.

But the confirmation brought Malaysian authorities no closer to determining what actually caused the Boeing 777 to deviate inexplicably off course and fly for hours and thousands of kilometres in the wrong direction.

Confirmed wreckage – to say nothing of the black box and its flight data – are yet to be found.

"Terrorism, pilot suicide and a complex set of mechanical failures never seen before are now the likely possibilities. A simple failure such as a simple fire or structural failure is becoming very unlikely," said aviation consultant Gerry Soejatman.

The airline said the international search in a stormy stretch of the Indian Ocean would continue "as we seek answers to the questions which remain".

The US Navy on Monday sent a specialised device to the region to help find the "black box" of flight and cockpit voice data, along with a robotic underwater vehicle that can scan the ocean's depths.

The high-tech black box locator can track down flight recorders as deep as 6,000 metres, the US Seventh Fleet said in a statement. The search area ranges from 3,000-4,000 metres deep.

The 30-day signal from the black box is due to fail in less than two weeks.

Australia said the search for debris grew to 10 aircraft on Monday, with two Chinese military aircraft joining Australian, US, and Japanese planes. Chinese, British and Australian naval vessels are also involved.

I have followed this sad story from the very beginning with two long continuing stories. Together they will give you all the background you need to know and you will also learn most of the vocabulary used to describe a story of this type. You can find them here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/400641/missing-mh370-a-thai-connection
http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/399096/missing-plane-mystery-continues

สามารถฝึกอ่านออกเสียงและดูคำแปลได้ที่ : http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/401615/mh370-lost-no-survivors-malaysian-pm