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February 3, 2015
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| Photo by Pieter van Marion via Flickr |
Jonathan Pearlman Sydney, The Daily Telegraph, February 3, 2015
The Australian authority overseeing the MH370 search says its focus is “just as fervent” as when the hunt started and it has deployed a fourth ship to cover difficult underwater territory in the Indian Ocean.
A day after Malaysian authorities declared the loss of the plane an accident and all 239 passengers presumed dead, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said it supported the declaration but had not given up on finding the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft.
“We remain focused on the search activity. We have a priority area,” Judith Zielke, an Australian civil servant who is coordinating the search, told ABC News.
“We've just put a fourth vessel into the search area to assist with some of the more difficult areas of the terrain, but please be assured that our focus on these search operations continues to be just as fervent as it was when we first started.”
The official description of the incident as an “accident” was made by Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia's civil aviation department, and was intended to pave the way for families of passengers to be compensated.
No trace of the Boeing 777 has been found since it flew off course and disappeared during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8. The plane is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
Some families of the passengers were angered by Malaysia's announcement and insisted that their loved ones may still be alive.
Ms Zielke said she supported the declaration and believed it would help the families to “move on”.
“We understand that the families of those on board are experiencing enormous grief and that's only heightened by not knowing the circumstances under which the aircraft disappeared,” Ms Zielke said.
“For next of kin to be able to proceed with presumption of death certificates and be able to take decisions in relation to how to deal with very day to day issues – bank accounts, assets, life insurance – you know, they need a decision like this to be able to move on.”
Ms Zielke would not comment on the cost of the massive underwater search, which is due to continue until May. Almost 7,000 square miles have been covered, about 30 per cent of the targeted zone. A fourth search vessel is due in the zone within days.
“I don't believe you can put a figure on the search,” she said.
“Australia has committed substantial resources but so have Malaysia and China as well … We have what we need at the moment to be undertaking the activity and this isn't something that necessarily more ships will resolve. This needs to be undertaken carefully and we need to make sure that we're coving all of the area.”
Asked how long the search might ultimately last, Ms Zielke said: “I can only say that I wake up every morning praying that today is the day. I am greatly concerned about the grief of the next of kin and trying to answer their concerns and their questions as quickly as possible. As well as just the general travelling public, I think everybody would like to know what has happened.”
This article was written by Jonathan Pearlman Sydney from The Daily Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
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