Australian officials are focusing search efforts for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner on a section of water that’s roughly the size of France.
John Young, the general manager for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Emergency Response Division, spoke about the search at a news conference today, saying crews are scouring a region in the southern Indian Ocean that covers 230,000 square miles.
Young compared the situation to looking for a needle in a haystack.
“This search will be difficult. The sheer size of the search area poses a huge challenge,” he said.
The search is beginning in a smaller, 1,150-square-mile area to the southwest of Perth. Four Royal Australian Air Force Orions, one New Zealand P-3 Orion and a U.S. P-8 Poseidon will search the waters for the Boeing jetliner, which disappeared March 8.
Members of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board contributed research to Australian authorities, Young said, helping officials define the search area.
As Young spoke, he was flanked by maps showing the southern and northern search regions. Those regions were shaped by the plane’s interactions with satellites. The plane continued to ping satellites for up to seven hours, identifying the plane’s location along corridors to the north or south.
18/03/14 Dan Good and Rebecca Lee/ABC News
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John Young, the general manager for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Emergency Response Division, spoke about the search at a news conference today, saying crews are scouring a region in the southern Indian Ocean that covers 230,000 square miles.
Young compared the situation to looking for a needle in a haystack.
“This search will be difficult. The sheer size of the search area poses a huge challenge,” he said.
The search is beginning in a smaller, 1,150-square-mile area to the southwest of Perth. Four Royal Australian Air Force Orions, one New Zealand P-3 Orion and a U.S. P-8 Poseidon will search the waters for the Boeing jetliner, which disappeared March 8.
Members of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board contributed research to Australian authorities, Young said, helping officials define the search area.
As Young spoke, he was flanked by maps showing the southern and northern search regions. Those regions were shaped by the plane’s interactions with satellites. The plane continued to ping satellites for up to seven hours, identifying the plane’s location along corridors to the north or south.
18/03/14 Dan Good and Rebecca Lee/ABC News
