Search area discounted as crash site of missing Malaysian airliner

USPA News - The area in the southern Indian Ocean where searchers believed missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had crashed after picking up `acoustic pings` has now been discounted as the final resting place of the aircraft, Australian officials said on Thursday. The Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) completed its last mission on Wednesday afternoon in trying to find the missing aircraft.

It wrapped up a weeks-long underwater search that covered hundreds of square kilometers after the Towed Pinger Locator detected `acoustic signals` in the area in early April, leading officials to believe they were from the aircraft`s black box. Data from the AUV`s last mission was analyzed by the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC), which advised on Thursday that no signs of aircraft debris had been found. The autonomous underwater vehicle has searched over 850 square kilometers (328 square miles) of the ocean floor, looking for debris of the missing airliner. "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 judgement, the area can now be discounted as the final resting place of MH370," the JACC said in a statement, delivering a stunning blow to the search effort. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated earlier this month that three major steps need to be taken to continue the search for the aircraft. This includes a review of existing information and analysis to define a search zone of up to 60,000 square kilometers (23,165 square miles) in the Southern Indian Ocean, running a bathymetric survey to map the sea floor in the defined search areas, and hiring specialist services to permit a comprehensive search of the sea floor. According to the Australian government, the expert satellite working group continues analyzing radar, satellite and aircraft performance data to determine where the airliner may have entered the ocean. A Chinese survey ship has already started conducting a bathymetric survey - the mapping of the ocean floor - in areas where the aircraft might have crashed, as determined by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). This survey is expected to take three months. A new phase of the underwater search, which will begin in August and may take up to a year to complete, works toward locating the missing airliner and any evidence, such as debris and flight recorders, to support the Malaysian investigation into the disappearance of MH370, according to Australian officials. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, was operating a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it disappeared from civilian radar in the early morning of March 8. It was flying above the South China Sea when it was last detected by air traffic controllers, but investigators believe the aircraft continued to fly for nearly seven more hours before crashing in the southern Indian Ocean west of Perth. Material that was found on a beach in southwestern Australia a month ago was previously discounted as being related to the missing passenger jet after authorities examined photos of the material. Other objects that were spotted in the southern Indian Ocean have also all been discounted.