By ASHLEY SWEET
Staff Writer
The Malaysia airliner, Flight 370, which went missing on March 8, just over two weeks ago is still yet to be found. As of March 20, 26 countries were involved in the search. The search on Friday expanded to include an area stretching from Kazakhstan to the southern Indian Ocean near the south-west of Perth, Australia. The search near Australia for debris seen by satellite was called off after ten hours.
“This is going to be a long haul,” said Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s interim transportation minister, on Friday after announcing they will try to reset the search.
The search area of 2.97 million miles has been split into seven areas, for the 29 aircrafts, 18 ships, 21 satellites, and six airborne helicopters currently enrolled in the search.
It has been stated that the aircrafts making flights in search of any debris or evidence will have to repeat the flights taken this past Thursday and Friday before they can be confident they have thoroughly covered the area. The area currently being search is almost the size of the country of Europe.
The United States alone has spent 2.5 million dollars on the search efforts, and currently has the Navy and a P-8 aircraft involved in the search.
“The Defense Department has allocated four million dollars for the search, funding that could last well through April,” said Col. Steven Warren, Pentagon spokesperson, told CNN news on March 21st.
The United Kingdom as of late last week was sending their ocean surveying vessel, HMS Echo to aid in the search of the southern Indian Ocean.
Australia also sent their ship, HMAS Success with a group of Chinese and Malaysian vessel to join the enormous Norwegian cargo ship that were sent to assist in the search as well.
Those involved in the search are giving the mission their undivided attention as their window of time to find Flight 370 continues to shrink. After two weeks, and spouts of bad weather, the prospect of finding the airliner and its 239 passengers, still intact and safe, becomes less likely.
As the search continues at sea, authorities on land have turned resources to also finding the reason behind the disappearance. While there was discussion over the forged passports, attention quickly turned to Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the pilot and Fariq Abdul Hamid, his co-pilot after Malaysian authorizes confirmed that the plane’s tracking devices were switched off manually and the plane was steered off course.
However, friends and family members have come to their rescue after they were accused of terrorism. Shah, 53, was renown by family and colleagues for his professionalism and the respect had for him. Hamid, 27, is upheld in the community for his dedication to religion and aviation career.
With neither one of the pilots putting up an abundance of red flags connecting them to terrorism, leaves more mystery to the disappearance.
What has been confirmed is that Hamid was the voice on the last transmission from the plane, saying, “All right, good night” to Malaysian ground controller, two minutes before the first and second transponder was shut down. After which the plane “went dark” and it is believed that the plane veered to the north-west and was last detected by Malaysia’s military radar in the Strait of Malacca.
The frustration and heartache of the families of those aboard Flight 370 can only be imagined at this point.
Various up and coming young adults were on their way to new jobs, a couple on their honeymoon, friends on their way to visit long lost friends, and many more stories have just begun being told.
The world audience’s greatest expectation right now, is that as the passengers’ stories surface, Flight 370 does as well.