Multinational search team thanked
Vice-Chief of the Defence Force Air Marshal Mark Binskin has thanked the multinational team for their efforts in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished on March 8.
Not one piece of debris has been found from the Boeing 777 that disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew.
However, searchers did not start looking in the current area of interest, calculated using satellite pings, until late last month - almost three weeks after the plane was lost. In the past 42 days, more than 50 planes have been involved in the search and support operations.
During the search, up to 15 planes a day have been over the various search areas.
More than 4 1/2 million sqkm of ocean has been scoured and 334 search flights conducted at an average of eight a day.
Total time in the air was 3000 hours. Supporting Australia were New Zealand, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the US.
After group photographs in front of the planes flown by the participating nations, Air Marshal Binskin and Commander Air Task Group, Group Capt. Craig Heap, addressed all personnel at the Royal Australian Air Force Pearce base.
Both reiterated that the search for MH370 had moved from a visual and acoustic search to an underwater search.
Air Marshal Binskin emphasised that all nations involved in the search worked cohesively as a team in an attempt to bring closure for the families of those aboard MH370.
