Yahoo!7 and agencies
March 21, 2014, 1:09 pm
Treacherous seas in search for MH370 known as 'Roaring Forties'
A freighter has used searchlights to scan rough seas in one of the remotest places on Earth after satellite images detected possible pieces from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the southern Indian Ocean.
In what officials called the "best lead" of the nearly two-week-old aviation mystery, a satellite detected two large objects floating about 2500km off the southwestern coast of Australia and halfway to the desolate islands of the Antarctic.
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The development raised new hope of finding the vanished plane and sent another emotional jolt to the families of the 239 people who were aboard when it went missing.
Australian authorities said in a statement early on Friday that the search had turned up nothing so far.
- Treacherous seas known as 'Roaring Forties'-
The search for the missing Boeing 777 has homed in on an expanse of deep sea so turbulent it is known by sailors as the "Roaring Forties."
The south Indian Ocean off of Australia is a remote body of water so treacherous it has earned the nickname "Roaring Forties" for the roiling seas and searing westerly wind that engulfs the area between latitude 40 degrees and 50 degrees, according to the ABC.
The winds that cut across the sea are not slowed down by any land mass, which allow gusts to create waves taller than six metres and higher.
Sailors used to frequently take advantage of the conditions off Perth's coastline, but now most ships avoid the area. Global shipping routes have been redirected to head toward Asia or Europe to avoid these latitudes.
In the treacherous part of the south Indian Ocean where the search is underway, the average depths of the water are well over 4000 kilometres. Combined with the strong currents of the sea, the possibility of finding any debris shrinks with every passing moment.
Plane debris may have drifted for miles away from any potential site of a crash, and if something sinks, it sinks into a very deep and vast ocean.
The search continues for MH370 as one aviation expert said that if the plane crashed in the Indian Ocean it may never be found.
Rémi Jouty, head of the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses, said that there would be much more work involved in an undersea search if objects found by satellites turned out to be from the missing plane.
“The only thing I can say is it will be most difficult and the recovery [of the wreckage on the seabed] is not guaranteed,” Mr Jouty told the Financial Times.
Four Australian aircraft completed the search over the 23,000 square kilometre area south-west of Perth, returning with no leads.
"It is a very long journey to the site and unfortunately, aircraft can only have one or two hours over the search area before they need to return to the mainland for fuel," Warren Truss, who is currently Australia's acting prime minister while Tony Abbott is overseas, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. He said that weather conditions in the area were poor and may get worse.
"And so clearly this is a very, very difficult and challenging search. Weather conditions are not particularly good and risk that they may deteriorate," Truss said.
The search time for any aircraft is restricted by the roughly six-hour round-trip flight to the area, said Caj Frostell, a former official with the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
"Your time of search is fairly limited because you need to have fuel to get back. That's why they need to have ships there also," he said.
The Norwegian cargo vessel Hoegh St Petersburg had arrived in the area and used searchlights after dark to look for debris. It will continue the search on Friday, said Ingar Skiaker of Hoegh Autoliners.
Another commercial ship and an Australian navy vessel were also en route to the search area.
But the frenzy of activity centred on this remote area of ocean comes days after the images were taken, and almost two weeks since the plane disappeared.
Australian Air Commodore John McGarry said it took time to analyse the images, taken on March 16, and which the Associated Press reported were provided by US company DigitalGlobe.
Satellite imagery experts said the lead was worth investigating.
However, one analyst cautioned the debris was most likely not pieces of MH370. There have been several false leads since the Boeing 777 disappeared on March 8 above the Gulf of Thailand en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
"The chances of it being debris from the aeroplane are probably small, and the chances of it being debris from other shipping are probably large," said Jason Middleton, an aviation professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
The development marked a new phase for the anguished relatives of the passengers, who have been critical of Malaysian officials for what the relatives say has been the slow release of timely information. While they still hope their loved ones will somehow be found, they acknowledged that news of the satellite images could mean the plane fell into the sea.
"If it turns out that it is truly MH370, then we will accept that fate," said Selamat Bin Omar, the father of a Malaysian passenger. The jet carried mostly Chinese and Malaysian nationals.
But he added that relatives still "do not yet know for sure whether this is indeed MH370 or something else. Therefore, we are still waiting for further notice from the Australian government."
Malaysian officials met with the relatives on Thursday night in a hotel near Kuala Lumpur, but journalists were kept away. After the meeting, groups of people left looking distraught.
Hamid Amran, who had a child on MH370, said questions asked at the meeting made it "apparent that Malaysia's military is incapable of protecting its own airspace".
He believes "that my child and all the other passengers are still alive. I will not give up hope."
Malaysian Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the relatives in Kuala Lumpur were being given updates by high-level officials "two or three times a day.
"We do take care of the next of kin," he said, adding that if the debris is located "close to Australia, we will obviously make arrangements to fly the next of kin there."
A group of Malaysian government and airline officials flew on Thursday night to Beijing to meet families there.
Malaysia has been under increasing fire for an investigation and search viewed as disjointed and chaotic, especially from passengers' relatives, who accuse authorities and the flag-carrier airline of insufficient or misleading information.
Nearly two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese nationals.
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There was a mixed reaction to the news among families gathered at a Beijing hotel, who have clung for almost two weeks to slim hopes that the plane landed somewhere.
"My son is still alive. My son is still alive. I don't believe the news," cried Wen Wancheng, 63, as he pushed his way through a throng of reporters.
Others cited the previous sightings that went nowhere.
"I am sick of hearing there is new information only for it to be dismissed later," one man angrily said.
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