Week 2 -Malaysia Airlines MH370

MH370: search moves further south to unmapped area in Indian Ocean

The search for missing flight MH370 has moved further south in the Indian Ocean, with searchers forced to spend three months mapping previously uncharted waters before a proper investigation can take place.

The Australian deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, announced the search for the plane off Western Australia had moved further south and was still about 1,800km offshore.

An expert satellite working group defined a new search zone of up to 60,000 square kilometres along the arc in the southern Indian Ocean in the hunt for the plane which has so far been fruitless. The new search area has not been mapped and Chinese and Australian ships are mapping the seafloor. This is expected to take three months.

The search will be able to start properly in August and could last for 12 months.

The chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Martin Dolan, joined Truss for the press conference in and said it was “highly, highly likely” that MH370 was on autopilot for hours before it crashed.

He said the conclusion was reached because of the orderly path the plane took.

The federal budget set aside $90m over two years for the search and authorities are still confident the Malaysian Airlines plane is off Australia’s west coast.

“Specialists have analysed satellite communications information, information which was never initially intended to have the capability to track an aircraft, and performed extremely complex calculations,” Truss said of how the new search area was established.

“The new priority area is still focused on the seventh arc, where the aircraft last communicated with satellite. We are now shifting our attention to an area further south along the arc based on these calculations.”

Structure of the Lead :

who: Warren Truss

when: start properly in August and could last for 12 months
what: search further south to Indian Ocean
why: hunt for the plane
where: unmapped area in Indian Ocean
how:

Keywords :

investigation(n.)調查

announce(v.)宣布

fruitless(a.)無結果的;不成功的
arc(n.)弧形物
satellite(n.)衛星