Aviation
Missing Malaysia plane: Search shifts to New area
SYDNEY — The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 entered a new phase on Thursday as authorities moved the search area for the third time in as many months, focusing on an area of the southern Indian Ocean buffeted by fierce winds and storms.
Authorities conceded the decision to move to an area as much as 600 miles south from where ships and planes have been deployed since early April is based on educated guesswork, given the limited data about the final movements of Flight 370 after it went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board.
The shift comes as private contractors ready plans to take over what would be the largest undersea search mission in history, with a deadline for bids on Monday. Authorities are offering as much as 60 million Australian dollars (US$56 million) for a company or research organization to carry out a search over 20,000 square miles of remote ocean using sonar equipment that may take as long as 300 days to complete.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau aims to spend about four weeks reviewing the bids before selecting a contractor to lead the rebooted search. That contractor will then have only a month to mobilize crew, equipment and ships from around the world to the new search area ahead of a restart in August.Scientists and aviation experts spent weeks analyzing signals sent from Flight 370 to a telecommunications satellite owned by Inmarsat PLC before concluding the plane likely flew faster than previously thought and turned south out of the Malacca Strait. These experts now think the plane covered a greater distance across the Indian Ocean.
“The only data we have now is the Inmarsat data,” said Charitha Pattiaratchi, head oceanographer at the University of Western Australia in Perth. “There is no physical data, and that’s the issue–you’re in the dark.”
Experts remain confident that the plane crashed within a few miles of a final ping transmission sent to an Inmarsat satellite on the morning of March 8, which they believe represents the moment the plane ran out of fuel. But the plane could have been anywhere along an arc extending thousands of miles of sea when it went down.
Warren Truss, Australia’s deputy prime minister, said it was “highly, highly likely” that Flight 370 was on autopilot when it traveled across the Indian Ocean because of the orderly path it is believed to have taken until it ran out of fuel.Past searches costing tens of millions of dollars have focused on areas along the arc around 700 miles apart, from desolate patches of sea near the French Antarctic territory of Kerguelen, to an area of offshore coral reefs near Exmouth, which is exposed to tropical cyclones. None of these operations, which involved military aircraft and ships from nations including the U.S. and China, found any debris related to the missing plane.
For searchers preparing to renew the hunt for the missing plane, the new area has some advantages. It shifts away from an area that included extremely deep seas such as the Wallaby-Zenith Fracture Zone, a tectonic rip in the Earth’s surface agitated by movements between the Australian and Greater Indian continental plates that descends down to 4.9 miles at its lowest point.
That area would only have been accessible to one device–the Chinese-owned Jiaolong minisub–after another underwater vehicle known as the Nereus imploded off the coast of New Zealand in May, said David Gallo, director of special projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The new search area runs from the South East Indian Ridge in the south – a narrow area of sea that has been mapped by U.S. researchers in the 1990s – through a deep abyssal plain to just west of the Broken Ridge, which is as shallow as 3,250 feet in places.However, this new area also presents several challenges. It covers a desolate patch of sea close to the “Roaring 40s,” an area lashed year round by fierce winds and storms. Previous air-and-sea search efforts in the remote southern Indian Ocean through late March had to be called off a number of times when waves and gale-force winds became too dangerous, requiring even the 516 foot navy vessel HMAS Success to evacuate the search area.
Two ships have been conducting bathymetric surveys of the sea floor as a precursor to a more detailed undersea search. These maps of the seabed are important because they will help expensive underwater sonar equipment navigate possible ocean trenches and ridges, limiting the chances that they could be damaged or lost.
The Chinese ship Zhu Kezhen has most recently been active in the southern part of the old search area, near where the Haixun 01 picked up acoustic signals with hand-held hydrophones in early April, a person close to the investigation said. Dutch oil and gas company Fugro NV’s bathymetric vessel the Equator was deployed to help speed up the bathymetric survey in mid-June, and sent to an area further south that is in an area indicative of the new search zone, a person close to the investigation said.It isn’t clear how much of this bathymetric work overlapped with the refined search area unveiled Thursday.
Searchers in planes and aboard ships initially focused of an area of the Indian Ocean far to the west of Perth from mid-March, based on preliminary calculations and reinforced by a number of satellite sightings of possible debris. However, objects pulled from the ocean turned out to be floating garbage such as discarded fishing equipment.
Authorities then shifted the search area some 700 miles northeast in late March based on radar analysis. A series of electronic signals detected underwater using a pinger locator towed behind the Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield raised hopes of a breakthrough. However, an underwater search using the Bluefin-21 drone failed to find any trace of the missing plane
– WALLSTREET JOURNAL
In a bold step to strengthen Akwa Ibom’s position in Nigeria’s aviation industry, Governor Umo Eno announced the addition of two new Bombardier CRJ900 aircraft to the fleet of the state-owned airline, Ibom Air, on Friday.
The two aircraft, registered as 5N-CED and 5N-CEE, mark a milestone in the state’s commitment to strategic investment, with the governor stressing that the acquisitions were fully funded by state resources without loans from financial institutions.
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At a welcoming ceremony attended by local officials and residents, Governor Eno emphasized his administration’s mission to drive revenue-generating ventures for Akwa Ibom rather than relying on debt.
He called the move a step toward breaking the cycle of government investments that only serve to pay off loans, vowing that the state’s funds would go towards projects that bring returns to the people.
The governor challenged Ibom Air to turn a profit by 2025, stating that the airline’s management should ensure routes in and out of Uyo remain dependable to prioritize the needs of Akwa Ibom travelers.
“As long as I remain governor, we will continue to use state funds for the benefit of all, not for private gain,” he said, noting that his administration aims to ensure that public investments deliver real value to the state.
Governor Eno also provided updates on several ambitious state projects, including an 18-story commercial complex underway in Lagos and an upcoming 4-star hotel in Abuja, both designed to generate revenue for Akwa Ibom.
Plans for an international market in Ikot Ekpene and the phased opening of a new terminal at the Victor Attah International Airport were also announced, with the airport terminal set for partial operation by December and full activation in early 2025.
Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Udeme Otong, commended Eno’s financial management, highlighting that the administration has avoided seeking loans over the past 18 months despite launching significant development projects.
Ibom Air’s Chairman, Pastor Imoabasi Jacob, expressed appreciation for the state’s investment in the airline, which has seen its fleet grow to nine aircraft.
Jacob credited the governor’s support with enabling Ibom Air to boost flight capacity, meeting demand on popular routes such as Uyo-Lagos-Abuja.
Captain Mfon Udom, CEO of Ibom Air, stated that the expanded fleet will improve efficiency and allow the airline to scale up its operations in time for the Christmas travel season.
Udom also noted that the airline anticipates the delivery of nine additional Airbus planes, which will further strengthen Ibom Air’s market presence.
Traditional leaders, including HRM Edidem Ita Edet Okokon III of Okobo Local Government Area, lauded the governor’s leadership, pledging continued support from the traditional institutions.
Anie Essienette, Group Manager for Marketing and Communications at Ibom Air, noted that demand for the airline’s services has surged nationwide, with the new CRJ900 aircraft helping meet this increasing need while the airline awaits further fleet expansion.
Nigeria’s Minister for Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo is of the view that there’s no cause for alarm over the approval of a private airstrip for a religious organisation, which attracted the attention of the House of Representatives.
He took to his verified handle on micro-blogging site, X, on Friday morning to shed light on the subject, and explained that it could be a great source of revenue for Federal Government.
Keyamo asserted that the issue was raised by an honourable member at plenary, out of ignorance, but was “unanimously referred to the Aviation Committee to look into.”
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Keyamo expressed confidence that by the time his Ministry was done enlightening them, “they will be satisfied”.
He added that “the privates air strip owners pay the Federal Government handsomely for these services.”
Keyamo wrote, “I think this is not correct. The House of Reps. as a body did not call on the Minister to revoke the license of any private airstrip.
“I think what happened is that someone moved a motion in that regard and it was unanimously referred to the Aviation Committee to look into it.
“Whilst the intention of the Hon. Member who moved it is very patriotic, it was based on a complete lack of knowledge of the aviation sector.
“By the time we explain to them how private air strips work and the processes they undergo by our agencies before the final approval, they will be satisfied.
“The responsibility of the owners of private air strips is just to build the runway and terminal building. But after they build the control tower in particular, it is completely handed over to the Federal Government through NAMA (Nigerian Airspace Management Agency) which is in complete control of the entire airspace in Nigeria. An MOU is usually signed with NAMA in this regard before the airstrip is approved for operations.
“It is NAMA that provides the Air Traffic Controllers and Engineers in ALL AIRPORTS and AIRSTRIPS IN NIGERIA. And the privates air strip owners pay the Federal Government handsomely for these services.
“No object flies into Nigeria without the prior clearance by NAMA and without filing a clear flight plan, eg, where it is taking off from and where it intends to land.
“And I have recently directed that all aircraft coming into the country MUST first land at our international airports where they would be properly processed and checked before they make their local flights into whatever airport or airstrip they intend to go. So, it is COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY impossible for any private airstrip owner to just jump on an aircraft and fly in and out of the country through that facility. The Federal Government does not permit that. You will not be cleared for take off or landing without prior request and authorisation.
“I thank the Member for his patriotism, but I wish he contacted us first to explain to him before rushing to move such a motion.
“I attach herewith for public consumption the NAMA Act that gives exclusive control of the Nigerian airspace to the Federal Government through NAMA.”
The NNPC Ltd has clarified that beyond the three bodies found in the ill-fated helicopter operated by East Winds Aviation that crashed on Thursday in Port Harcourt, no other bodies have been recovered.
This was contained in a statement in Abuja on Sunday by the Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC Ltd, Olufemi Soneye.
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“The Company further notes that intensified search and rescue operations for the remaining bodies along with relevant authorities is still ongoing.
“Once again, our hearts and prayers are with family members of this unfortunate incident,” the statement added.
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