Daily Mail.....

Fresh problems hit search for missing flight MH370 as technical problem forces the only ship left searching the Indian Ocean to return to port

Only Chinese vessel left looking for the plane suffered malfunction
Was forced to return to port in another setback for the search operation
A Chinese survey ship has begun mapping the new area's ocean floor
The data will determine the new technology required for the fresh search
The acoustic 'pings' which the previous search had been based off, are believed to not have come from black box but from search equipment

PUBLISHED: 06:29 EST, 31 May 2014 | UPDATED: 08:07 EST, 31 May 2014

The problems that have blighted the search for flight MH370 continued today when the only ship left searching the Indian Ocean was forced to return to port because of a technical problem.

After authorities agreed that searchers had been looking in the wrong part of the ocean off the west coast of Australia, only the Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen was left to continue the mission to find the jet.

But today the vessel was heading for port in Australia after it suffered a defect to its multibeam echosounder, Australia's Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre said in a statement.

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is expected to continue for at least the next 12 months, with Deputy prime minister Warren Truss declaring Australia is 'committed to the search'

'The journey is expected to take a couple of days,' it said, an announcement that added to weeks of frustration in the search for the plane, which vanished on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew.

The Chinese vessel was conducting a bathymetric survey - or mapping of the ocean floor - to help experts determine how to carry out the next stage of the search on the previously unmapped ocean seabed.

As well as this task, the crew were also looking for any signs of the aircraft such as debris or an oil slick.

The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean will continue for up to another year despite recent setbacks.

A new area of up to 800 kilometres long and 70 kilometres wide is expected to be selected for the new search zone. The Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen, has already begun mapping the new ocean floor and is expected to continue for the next three months.

A Chinese survey ship has already begun mapping of the new ocean floor, expected to continue for the next three months

The data collected by the ship, which is conducting a bathymetric survey, will determine if new search equipment can be safely towed to the area's sea floor to search for the airline which went missing on March 8 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew.

It will also help determine water depths, enabling selection of scanning technology that will be needed for a fresh underwater search.

The previous two-month-long search for the airline drew doubts from US Navy sources earlier this week when the acoustic 'pings', which were at the centre of the search, were no longer believed to be coming from the aircraft's black box.

The Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre confirmed that the previous search area was being abandoned on Thursday, and discounted as the resting place of the missing airline.

'The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has advised that the search in the vicinity of the acoustic detections can now be considered complete and in its professional judgment, the area can now be discounted as the final resting place of MH370,' the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre said.

The Cinese ship Haixun 01 (pictured) and a Malaysian vessel, Bunga Mas 6, are assisting with transporting the survey data for further processing

In an interview with the ABC on Friday however, Deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, confirmed that the search would continue despite the revelations.

'We remain as a nation committed to the search, we remain determined to do everything we possibly can to find this aircraft,' he said.

'It's our responsibility to the families of those who are involved, but also to assure the safety of the flying public into the future.'

With the departure of Ocean Shield on Friday, the new search for the aircraft or any debris is anticipated to begin in August and take up to 12 months.

Possible rings of location: These areas were determined by measuring the time difference between communication messages sent between MH370 and an Inmarsat satellite

The Ocean Shield departed the previous search area on Friday after it was revealed that the acoustic 'pings' whose data the search was based off, were unlikely to have been coming from the plane's black-box

A contracted survey vessel is set to join the Chinese ship which is currently surveying the area alongside another Chinese ship Haixun 01 and a Malaysian vessel Bunga Mas 6 which are assisting with transporting the survey data for further processing.

Satellite, radar and and aircraft performance data also continue to be reviewed separately to determine where the plane was most likely to have hit the water.

Seven of the so called 'handshake' signals sent by the plane to an Inmarsat satellite will be reanalyzed, as they are now determined to be the best indication of the planes final location points.

The Inmarsat control room. The British satellite firm's data, which contains signals sent by MH370 will be reanalyzed

Australian search authorities narrowed the search for the jet after picking up a series of pings near where analysis of satellite data put the last location of the Boeing 777, some 1,600km off Australia's northwest coast

The discovery of the pings on April 5 and 8 was hailed as a significant breakthrough, leading Australian search authorities to narrow the search for the jet to some 1,600 km off Australia's northwest coast.

But according to Michael Dean, the US Navy's deputy director of ocean engineering, authorities now almost universally believe the pings did not come from the onboard data or cockpit voice recorders.

He believes the pings instead came from some other man-made source unrelated to the jetliner which disappeared on March 8 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew.

Speaking to CNN, Mr Dean said: ‘Our best theory at this point is that (the pings were) likely some sound produced by the ship ... or within the electronics of the Towed Pinger Locator.’

850 square kilometres of the ocean floor were scoured in search of the airline, but no sign of wreckage and no debris linked to the plane has ever been picked up despite the most extensive and expensive search effort in aviation history.

Authorities have not ruled out mechanical problems as a cause but say the evidence, including the loss of communications, suggests it was deliberately diverted thousands of kilometres from its scheduled route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Saturday, 31 May 2014 08:08

Families of MH370 crew express FRUSTRATION

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Families of the cabin crew of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on Friday expressed frustration that the search for the missing jet isn't likely to resume for another three months after a massive hunt led by the Australian government in the Indian Ocean turned up nothing.

"It is very disheartening," said Jacquita Gonzales, wife of lead flight steward Patrick Gomes. "We are all on a roller coaster again. We have highs, we have lows. We have just hit bottom again."

Ms. Gonzales spoke for family members of six crew members at a news conference in the Malaysian state of Selangor.

Flight 370, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared in the early hours of March 8 on a routine flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. The crew members--10 flight attendants plus the pilot and co-pilot--were all from Malaysia.

The news conference was called to reject a proposal the day before by the powerful union of the employees of Malaysia Airlines--the Malaysia Airlines System Employees' Union--that the airlines set up a special entity to deal with the needs of the families and the search so that management can focus on day-to-day operations.

Ms. Gonzales spoke to other issues as well.

The news conference was held a day after the Australian government said that the section of the Indian Ocean around ping transmissions thought to have come from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370's black-box flight recorders can now be "discounted," following the end of an undersea search.

Twenty-six countries participated in the search for the jet, but no physical evidence has yet been found. A private contractor will resume the search for the Boeing 777 no earlier than August.

"We have not found the plane. We have not found our loved ones," said Ms. Gonzales.

Asked whether she had braced herself for the possibility that the plane may never be found, Ms. Gonzales said, "In our hearts and in our minds we still want them to come back. Everything is still in the present tense." - WSJ

Star Online.....

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/05/31/MH370-search-on-the-right-track-Aussie-transport-chief-defends-hunt-for-aircraft/

( Really ? )

Published: Saturday May 31, 2014 MYT 8:37:40 AM
Updated: Saturday May 31, 2014 MYT 8:37:40 AM

'MH370 search on the right track'

SYDNEY: The head of Australia’s transport safety bureau has defended the fruitless hunt thus far for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, saying he is confident that search teams are targeting the right area.

Satellite analysis in the days after the Bo-eing 777 vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board placed the jet somewhere in a huge tract of the Indian Ocean stretching from near Indonesia south towards Antarctica.

But in a setback, the area believed to be the jet’s most likely resting place based on the detection of acoustic “pings” was on Thursday ruled out after an extensive underwater search.

Australia’s Transport Safety Bureau chief commissioner Martin Dolan, whose organisation is playing a key role in the search effort, said the four signals detected in April were then the best lead in the hunt for the plane, which mysteriously diverted from its Kuala Lumpur-to-Beijing route.

He said that while experts were reassessing the satellite data that led the search to the southern Indian Ocean, the linear arc produced by analysis of this information still likely represented the plane’s flight path.

Not happy: Jacquita (right) questions Maseu’s call for MAS to move on from the MH370 incident.

“That arc is definite. We know that somewhere close to that very long arc is where the aircraft will be found,” he told AFP in an interview late on Thursday.

The next phase will focus on using the satellite data to confirm a search area, completing mapping of the sea floor and getting towable sonar and other equipment to carry out an intensive deep-water search, which could take up to a year.

Meanwhile, in Subang Jaya, calls by the Malaysia Airlines System Employees Union (Maseu) for MAS to move on from MH370 have sparked anger among the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) and the families of the MH370 cabin crew.

“They haven’t found the plane. They haven’t found my husband. How can they push our loved ones aside when they have given so many years to the airline?” said an emotional Jacquita Gonzales, the wife of MH370’s in-flight supervisor Patrick Francis Gomes.

Maseu executive secretary Mohd Jabbarullah Abd Kadir had said that it was now time for the loss-making airline to put MH370 aside to ensure business stayed afloat.

He also called for the resignations of MAS’ top management, including CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.

At a press conference at a hotel yesterday, Nufam president Ismail Nasaruddin, flanked by three families of the MH370 cabin crew, urged Maseu not to aggravate the situation for the families and appealed for MAS’ continuous assistance.