MH370: search effort swings towards finding black boxes

US navy equipment arrives to scan for flight recorders on ocean floor after satellite photos reveal 122 pieces of possible debris

View from the cockpit of an Australian air force Orion during the search mission for alaysia Airlines flight !"#$ over the southern %ndian Ocean& 'hotograph( 'aul )ane*A+'*,etty Justin McCurry in -okyo.-hursday 2# arch 2$1/ Underwater scanners for finding the black bo0 flight recorders from the missing alaysia Airlines flight !"#$ have arrived at the search headquarters as crews pin their hopes on new satellite images showing 122 pieces of possible debris in the area of the %ndian Ocean where the plane is presumed to have gone down& An Australian navy ship will sweep the seabed by towing an underwater listening device deep below the surface in the hope of picking up an ultrasonic signal from one or both of the recorders1 while a small submersible drone will be used to scan the sea floor for signs of wreckage& -he search for the plane2 involving 11 planes and five ships2 resumed on -hursday in an area of the vast southern %ndian Ocean where officials believe the plane ran out of fuel and crashed2 killing all 2"3 people aboard& -he ob4ects captured in satellite images on 2" arch have been described by senior alaysian officials as the most credible lead yet as to the 4etliner5s whereabouts& alaysia5s transport minister2 !ishammuddin !ussein2 said the images had been captured by Airbus 6efence and Space in +rance and covered an area of around /$$

square kilometres located 2277#km from 'erth& -he operation involves planes and ships from the US2 8hina2 9apan2 South )orea2 Australia and :ew ;ealand& Officials from the Australian aritime Safety Authority said the search on -hursday had been split into two areas totalling #<2$$$ square kilometres ="$2$$$ square miles>& ?ocating and retrieving at least some of the floating ob4ects2 ranging in length from one to 2" metres2 could prove crucial in the absence of any physical evidence supporting the theory that !"#$ ran out of fuel hours after it turned sharply off course and disappeared from air traffic controllers5 screens over the South 8hina Sea en route from )uala ?umpur to @ei4ing& Search teams are hoping the detection equipment will be able to pick up acoustic pings emitted every second from the plane5s black bo0 flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder& Aach of the two recorders has a beacon2 attached to the outside of the black bo02 which once activated by contact with water makes a sound every second& @ut it is a race against time B the beacons have a battery life of 4ust "$ days2 after which the pings begin to fade& 8huck Schofield of 6ukane Seacom2 a company that has sold the pingers to alaysia Airlines2 told Associated 'ress the batteries might last an additional five days before dying& Assuming that the plane crashed on < arch2 as alaysian officials insist2 that means the beacons aboard !"#$ will begin to fade around # April and could go silent around 12 April& -he US navy tracking equipment B a special listening device known as a Ctowed pinger locatorC and an underwater drone dubbed @luefin.21 B has arrived in 'erth2 where the international effort is headquartered and is being sent to the search site&

Deports said the equipment would be loaded on to the Doyal Australian :avy5s ! AS Ocean Shield2 which will drag the locator through the water in the hope of picking up a signal& -he drone can dive to depths of about /27$$ metres2 using sonar to form images of the ocean floor& Similar technology was used to locate the main wreckage from Air +rance flight //# in 2$11 B yet it still took searchers two years to recover the black bo0 from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean& -he operation has been hampered by bad weather and conditions were again e0pected to deteriorate later on -hursday2 prolonging the anguish of relatives after alaysian officials said they had concluded that the aircraft had crashed into the sea with the loss of all on board& 8riticism of the alaysian authorities5 handling of the incident has continued2 with relatives of the 17/ 8hinese passengers on board !"#$ berating and ridiculing alaysian government and airline officials at a meeting in @ei4ing on Eednesday& Several 8hinese celebrities took to social media to voice anger at the alaysian government& %n a widely shared post on Sina Eeibo2 8hina5s version of -witter2 the singer and actor 8hen )un said he would boycott alaysian goods2 while the !ong )ong.born actor 6eric Ean called for evidence that the plane had crashed& Ehat 8hinese people wanted was the truth of the missing plane instead of a pointless press conference2C he said on Eeibo2 according to 8hina 6aily& @ut in an opinion piece in -hursday5s ,lobal -imes2 Eang Eenwen said while alaysia had handled the crash aftermath ineptly2 raw emotion should not be allowed to determine relations between the 8hinese and alaysian governments& F%t is too early to let public opinion lead the way at the current stage& Ehether @ei4ing.)uala ?umpur relations will dim depends to some e0tent on how the G8hineseH government will act between diplomatic manoeuvering and public opinion&I -he :ew ;ealand family of 'aul Eeeks2 one of the passengers2 added their voice to

criticism of the alaysian authorities& C-he whole situation has been handled appallingly2 incredibly insensitively2C Sara Eeeks2 the missing manJs brother2 told Dadio ?ive in :ew ;ealand& CAveryone is angry about it& C-he alaysian government2 the airline B itJs 4ust all been incredibly poor& EhoJs to say they couldnJt have located the plane the day that it happenedKC