MH370 Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says he is planning to travel to Perth where the multinational search for MH370 is being coordinated by the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC).
However, this would likely take place after the Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) finishes mapping the area thought to be the missing aircraft’s final resting place.
“Yes, (I’m) discussing with (JACC) chief Angus Houston. Maybe on completion of remaining 20 percent (of) search by Bluefin,” he said on Twitter today when a netizen asked him about his travel plans.
At a previous press conference, Hishammuddin had already said that he intends to travel to Perth, and that he hopes to be with Houston when he makes the decision on how to proceed with the search.
He had also told reporters that a team led by Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin will travel to Perth this week as well, after finishing his ongoing visit to Beijing. Hamzah heads the government’s MH370 Next-of-Kin Committee.
Today is Day 47 in the search for missing aircraft and the 239 people on board, but the search has yielded nothing so far except for clues of the aircraft’s position and heading based on analysis of satellite data, and pings from the bottom of the South Indian Ocean.
The US Navy-supplied Bluefin-21 is currently using its sonar to map the area within a 10-kilometre radius from where the pings were detected for a second time, operating from the Australian vessel ADV Ocean Shield. It has searched 80 percent of the area so far.
Analysis of the ping have found it to be of man-made origin, and consistent with the sounds of two underwater locator beacons (pingers) that may each be fitted on an aircraft’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.
Both Hishammuddin and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had said a review of the search operations will be necessary if current efforts fail to locate the aircraft, while Australian Defence Minister David Johnston says an announcement on this will likely be made next week.
Meanwhile, Hishammuddin also tweeted yesterday that he will be engaging with the Chinese Navy and Petronas today about obtaining more assets to assist with the search effort, particularly those capable of searching deep oceans. The current search area averages at around 4,500 metres in depth.
In addition, he said the experts helping to find out what happened to the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft has not cost the government anything so far.
“To date, not one cent. In fact it is to their interest to know what happened,” he said when asked how much hiring the experts had cost.
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