Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was "highly, highly
likely" on autopilot when it ran out of fuel and crashed, Australian
officials said Thursday as they announced the search will shift further south.
"It would be fair to comment that it is highly,
highly likely that the aircraft was on autopilot, otherwise it could not have
followed the orderly path that has been identified through the satellite
sightings," AFP reported Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss as
saying at a press conference in Canberra.
Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian
Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), who was also at the press conference said they
were confident the aircraft was operating on autopilot based on its path across
the Indian Ocean, until it ran out of fuel.
"The whole process of analysis has been iterative
one, so based on the satellite date there were theoretically an infinite range
of flight paths the aircraft could have taken of all different sort of shapes
and changes of course.
"But to try and refine those we had to make some
provisional assumptions about the behaviour of the aircraft which was then
tested against the date and analysis.
"And the best fit and highest probability flight
path is one that has it on a straight course and that's associated with the
aircraft operating on auto-pilot," said Dolan.
Truss also said the new search zone measures up to
60,000 sq km, located along the arc in the southern Indian Ocean.
"Specialists have analysed satellite
communications information - information which was never initially intended to
have the capability to track an aircraft - and performed extremely complex
calculations.
"The new priority area is still focused on the
seventh arc, where the aircraft last communicated with satellite. We are now
shifting our attention to an area further south along the arc based on these
calculations," he said.
Truss said the search would entail ocean floor mapping
followed by a comprehensive search of the sea floor.
"The bathymetric survey has already commenced,
with the Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen and the Australian-contracted vessel
Fugro Equator conducting operations in the areas provided by the Australian
Transport Safety Bureau," Truss said.
He said it will take around three months to complete
the bathymetric survey, while the underwater search will begin in August and
could take up to 12 months to complete.
"The underwater search will aim to locate the
aircraft and any evidence to assist with the Malaysian investigation of the
disappearance of MH370."
He said Malaysia and Australia are developing a
memorandum of understanding to determine the areas of cooperation in the search
and recovery activities, including financial arrangements.
He said Malaysia would announce details of the
contracted assets that may be deployed for use in the search.
The survey equipment that has been identified so far
includes towed side-scan sonar, a multi-beam echo sounder and a sub-bottom
profiler.
Neville Spykerman
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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