They stare out at a punishingly unbroken expanse of grey water that seems, at times, to blend into the clouds. Occasionally, they press their foreheads against the plane's windows so hard they leave grease marks, their eyes darting up and down, left and right, looking for something - anything - that could explain the fate of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
The hunt for Flight MH370, which vanished on March 8 during a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, is complicated in just about every way imaginable, from the vastness of the search area to its distance from land to the brutal weather that plagues it. But for all the fancy technology on board the planes and vessels scouring the swirling waters, the best tool searchers have are their own eyes.
Those eyes can spot things man-made equipment cannot. But they are also subject to the peculiarities of the human brain. They can play tricks. They can blink at the wrong moment. They can, and often do, grow weary.
"It is incredibly fatiguing work," says Flight Lieutenant Stephen Graham, tactical coordinator for the crew on board a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion that has made six sorties into the southern Indian Ocean search zone. "If it's bright and glaring, obviously sunglasses help, but there's only so much you can do."
Search and rescue makes up a small part of what Graham's squadron does, and visual spotting is an even smaller subset of that. But everyone on board has had to learn how to do it - and it's not as simple as most people think. Graham learned as part of a year-long training stint in Canada, further refined his skills during a six-month course in New Zealand and has had ongoing training since.
28/03/14 Kristen Gelineau and Rob Griffith/Sydney Morning Herald
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The hunt for Flight MH370, which vanished on March 8 during a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, is complicated in just about every way imaginable, from the vastness of the search area to its distance from land to the brutal weather that plagues it. But for all the fancy technology on board the planes and vessels scouring the swirling waters, the best tool searchers have are their own eyes.
Those eyes can spot things man-made equipment cannot. But they are also subject to the peculiarities of the human brain. They can play tricks. They can blink at the wrong moment. They can, and often do, grow weary.
"It is incredibly fatiguing work," says Flight Lieutenant Stephen Graham, tactical coordinator for the crew on board a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion that has made six sorties into the southern Indian Ocean search zone. "If it's bright and glaring, obviously sunglasses help, but there's only so much you can do."
Search and rescue makes up a small part of what Graham's squadron does, and visual spotting is an even smaller subset of that. But everyone on board has had to learn how to do it - and it's not as simple as most people think. Graham learned as part of a year-long training stint in Canada, further refined his skills during a six-month course in New Zealand and has had ongoing training since.
28/03/14 Kristen Gelineau and Rob Griffith/Sydney Morning Herald
