Search for long-missing flight MH370 suspended: Malaysia minister


ByAFP
April 3, 2025


An event was held to mark the 10th year since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from radar screens - Copyright AFP Arif Kartono

Raevathi SUPRAMANIAM

The latest search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been suspended, Kuala Lumpur’s transport minister said, more than a decade after the plane went missing.

“They have stopped the operation for the time being, they will resume the search at the end of this year,” Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a voice recording sent to AFP on Thursday by his aide.

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has not been found.

Loke’s comments come just one month after authorities said the search had resumed, following earlier failed attempts that covered vast swaths of the Indian Ocean.

An initial Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometres (46,300 square miles) in the Indian Ocean over three years, but found hardly any trace of the plane other than a few pieces of debris.

Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, led an unsuccessful hunt in 2018, before agreeing to launch a new search this year.

“Right now, it’s not the season,” Loke said in the recording, which was made during an event at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday.

“Whether or not it will be found will be subject to the search, nobody can anticipate,” Loke said, referring to the wreckage of the plane.



– Aviation mystery –



The search was put on hold “due to seasonal weather changes and unavoidable prior commercial commitments”, a separate statement posted on the “MH370 Families” Facebook group said.

Loke said in December that a new 15,000 square kilometre area of the southern Indian Ocean would be scoured by Ocean Infinity.

The most recent mission was conducted on the same “no find, no fee” principle as Ocean Infinity’s previous search, with the government only paying out if the firm finds the aircraft.

The plane’s disappearance has long been the subject of theories — ranging from the credible to outlandish — including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue.

A final report into the tragedy released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others were from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, and elsewhere.

Relatives of passengers lost on the flight have continued to demand answers from Malaysian authorities.

Family members of Chinese passengers gathered in Beijing outside government offices and the Malaysian embassy last month on the 11th anniversary of the flight’s disappearance.

Attendees of the gathering shouted, “Give us back our loved ones!”

Some held placards asking, “When will the 11 years of waiting and torment end?”

MY THEORY

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT

Malaysia agrees to resume search for missing MH370 plane

IT WAS DOWNED BY A WATERSPOUT


By AFP
December 20, 2024

Malaysia announced on Friday it has agreed to launch a new search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared 10 years ago in one of aviation’s greatest enduring mysteries.

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has never been found.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Malaysia had agreed to a new search operation by maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which also carried out an unsuccessful hunt in 2018.

The company’s first efforts followed a massive Australia-led search for the aircraft that lasted three years before it was suspended in January 2017.

Loke said a new 15,000 square kilometre (5,800 square mile) area of the southern Indian Ocean would be scoured by Ocean Infinity, which is based in the United Kingdom and United States.

“The new search area proposed by Ocean Infinity is based on the latest information and data analysis conducted by experts and researchers,” Loke said.

“The proposal for a search operation by Ocean Infinity is a solid one and deserves to be considered,” he told reporters.

The government said it agreed Ocean Infinity’s proposal “in principle” on December 13, with the transport ministry expected to finalise terms by early 2025.

The new search will resume “as soon as the contract is finalised and signed by both parties”, Loke said.

“They have informed us that the ideal time for the search in the designated waters is between January and April. We are working to finalise the agreement as quickly as possible,” he added.

– ‘No guarantees’ –

The new search will be on the same “no find, no fee” principle as Ocean Infinity’s previous search, with the government only paying out if they find the aircraft.

The contract is for 18 months and Malaysia will pay $70 million to the company if the plane is found, Loke said.

He said the decision to agree to a fresh search “reflects the Malaysian government’s commitment to continuing the search operation and providing closure to the families of the MH370 victims”.

The original Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometres in the Indian Ocean but found hardly any trace of the plane, with only some pieces of debris picked up.

The plane’s disappearance has long been the subject of theories — ranging from the credible to outlandish — including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue.

A final report into the tragedy released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

Asked if he was confident the plane will be found during the new search, Loke said: “At this point, no one can provide guarantees.

“It has been over 10 years, and it would be unfair to expect a concrete commitment. However, under the terms and conditions, any discovery must be credible. It cannot just be a few fragments; there are specific criteria outlined in the contract.”

WATERSPOUTS

Twin waterspouts appear near Palm Beach amid storm warning

The National Weather Service issued a marine warning for local waters, with 46 mph wind gusts forecast.

Thursday 22 August 2024 

THE BAYESIAN Yacht Sinking: Climate Change Created Perfect Storm for Waterspouts

While the exact cause of the deadly sinking of the Bayesian superyacht remains unknown, dangerous waterspouts were spotted in the area. Scientists say they may become far more common.


Photograph: koto_feja/Getty Images

The waterspout blamed for the deadly sinking of a luxury superyacht carrying the British tech billionaire Mike Lynch in Italy has been called a freak “black swan” event. But scientists believe this kind of marine tornado is becoming more common with global warming.

While the cause of the sinking of the Bayesian hasn’t officially been determined, weather conditions and witness reports from Sicily, where the yacht was anchored off the coast, have led experts to suspect a waterspout, a whirling column of air and water mist. The key factor for waterspout formation is warm water—and the past year has seen the ocean surface heat up to record-breaking temperatures, in part due to climate change.

“If this rate of warming is going to be continuing in the future, it’s very possible these phenomena will be common and not rare,” says Michalis Sioutas, a meteorology PhD who studies waterspouts in Greece and is a board member of the Hellenic Meteorological Society. “It’s very possible to talk about waterspouts or even tornadoes and extreme storms becoming common.”

The 180-foot Bayesian sank in a matter of minutes after being caught in a sudden storm with strong winds and intense lightning at around 4 am on Monday. Fifteen people who had been aboard were rescued, and one person was found dead. Six people are missing, including British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, who was recently cleared of fraud charges over the sale of his company to Hewlett-Packard. On Wednesday, the bodies of five people were recovered from the sunken ship but have yet to be identified.

Fishermen saw a waterspout near the yacht shortly before it sank, and a nearby schooner was tossed about by what its captain, Karsten Borner, called a “hurricane gust,” which he believes capsized the Bayesian. Experts have said the conditions were ripe for a waterspout.

This extreme weather phenomenon occurs when warm, moist air rises rapidly over water, spinning as winds change direction at different heights. The result is a long, bending funnel of spray between the water and the clouds, tapering off as it rises as much as 10,000 feet into the heavens.

It comes in two flavors. The more vanilla kind is a fair weather waterspout, which forms in relatively calm and even sunny conditions, often under a billowy cumulus cloud. It happens more often in places like the Great Lakes and the Florida Keys, reaches wind speeds of 50 miles per hour, and usually breaks up before it can cause significant damage.

Then there are severe waterspouts, essentially tornadoes over water, which “are another beast” entirely, according to Wade Szilagyi, a retired forecaster at the Meteorological Service of Canada who now directs the International Center for Waterspout Research. These tornadic waterspouts can move from land to water, or vice versa, and twist at 125 miles per hour or more. They’ve been known to throw debris, rip apart buildings, and overturn boats.

A waterspout documented by Sioutas in Methoni, Greece, in 2004 picked up a boat and sent it sailing through the air, striking and killing a 10-year-old boy. Last year, a sudden storm and waterspout with winds of over 40 miles per hour overturned a tourist boat carrying off-duty intelligence agents on Italy’s Lake Maggiore, killing four. Sioutas says waterspouts can even generate “massive water displacements similar to tsunamis,” citing the gigantic waves that struck the coast of the Greek island of Samos during a 2004 cyclone, tossing boulders like toys.

Tornadic waterspouts spring up only in stormy weather with strong winds, lightning, and sometimes hail, and are the product of two main ingredients: wind shear and rising, unstable air. The process begins when masses of cold and warm air collide. This brings together winds from different directions that start to spin around each other, creating vortices. If a thunderstorm also converges in the area, it can provide the instability, sucking warm air up into itself at dizzying speeds. Over water, it starts carrying moisture up as well. Szilagyi compares the waterspout’s development to a twirling figure skater.

“You can think of the skater, if she just spins around normally, that’s like the little vortex that’s already started,” he says. “But if she brings her arms in, then that’s like the column of that unstable warm air, pulling, stretching that vortex upward. She starts to spin faster.”

Waterspouts have been known and feared since ancient times. In the 1550s in Malta, a waterspout plowed through the harbor of Valletta, reportedly destroying an armada of warships and killing hundreds of people. It’s even thought that old stories of fish or frogs raining down on land may be the product of waterspouts sweeping the creatures up into the clouds.

Now global warming may be supercharging the phenomenon. The International Panel on Climate Change has not found a definite link—there hasn’t been much research into how climate change may be affecting waterspouts—but experts say that the conditions for waterspouts to form are happening more often. A 2022 study of 234 waterspouts in the Spanish Mediterranean over the past three decades found that they were more likely to break out when the sea surface was warmer, especially above 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit). And water temperatures are now at unprecedented levels.

Last year was the warmest on record for the ocean. The heat content of the upper 6,500 feet of the seas was the highest ever seen. The seas broke temperature records every single day between May 2023 and May 2024. Marine heat waves struck areas from Antarctica to the Mediterranean.

“Warmer oceans have more energy and more humidity to transfer to the atmosphere, the most important fuels for storms,” says Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society. “The contrast of warm sea and colder air that flows over energizes vertical winds that could result in downbursts or waterspouts.” (A downburst is a powerful cascade of wind and rain from a thundercloud.)

That perfect storm of waterspout conditions hit Italy around the time the Bayesian sank. In recent days, a mass of high-level cold air has swept down from the Alps and over the country’s western coast, meeting the exceptionally warm air just above the sea surface. Four days before the Bayesian went down, sea surface temperatures were the hottest ever recorded across the Mediterranean Sea, with a daily median of 28.71 degrees Celsius. The ocean near where the Bayesian was anchored has reached almost 30 degrees Celsius this week, four degrees higher than the 20-year summer average, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Cold and warm air clashed. Winds started spinning, and overheated water provided the ingredient of instability needed for a waterspout outbreak. As a result, a total of 28 waterspouts were documented off the western coast of Italy from August 17 to August 20, according to the International Center for Waterspout Research.

The total number of waterspouts reported has been increasing in recent years, although a major factor has been that more people are able to capture them with phone cameras and post them on social media, Szilagyi says. But he says that warming waters and a longer waterspout season due to climate change are also contributing. In particular, he believes the number of severe waterspouts are on the rise.

“With the increased water temperatures, that’s probably resulting in more frequent tornadic waterspouts,” Szilagyi says. “There’s no scientific evidence yet that they’re getting even stronger. It’s just that they’re becoming more frequent.”

Warming sea waters are also expected to boost other extreme weather events like Mediterranean hurricanes, or “medicanes,” one of which contributed to the flash flood that killed thousands of people in Libya last year.

In this brave new world, countries need to improve early-warning systems and invest more in research to forecast and observe trends in waterspouts, scientists say. “We have to prepared for more dangerous waterspouts possibly in the future,” Sioutas says. “Significantly warmer waters contribute very significantly to the creation of waterspouts, especially the violent ones.”

Updated 8-22-2024 1:15 pm BST: A previous version of the story stated that the ship’s mast had snapped; this detail has been removed as damage to the mast has not been confirmed.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MH370 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT 

Waterspout turns into a weak tornado in Florida

 A waterspout transformed into a weak tornado upon reaching land, as captured in footage by a driver in Crystal River, Florida, on Sunday (June 16).

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MH370 

 

Flight MH370's Disappearance Shows the Difficulty of Deep-Sea Search

A 2014 search plan shows the rugged contours of the Indian Ocean seabed (Australian Transportation Safety Bureau)

PUBLISHED MAR 11, 2024 8:42 PM BY THE CONVERSATION

 

 

[By Jamie Pringle, Alastair Ruffell Reader and Ruth Morgan]

It has been ten years since Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew on board, disappeared less than one hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on 8 March 2014. It has become one of the great mysteries of modern times and is a puzzle that has remained resolutely unsolved.

Theories abound on the flight’s disappearance and current location of the wreckage. Unusually, all communications aboard the plane were switched off shortly after take-off.

Intermittent satellite location information subsequently suggested it was flown south on a very different flight path than expected, to a remote and deep ocean area of the Southern Indian Ocean before contact was lost.

When actively searching for MH370, sophisticated international surveillance aircraft initially conducted over 300 flights to visually look for plane debris on the surface. Then surface and submersible vehicles conducted further surveys, searching over 120,000 square kilometers of ocean before ending the search in 2017.

The effort to find MH370 became one of the most expensive aviation searches in history. These surveys used both sonar (active acoustic instruments to image the sea floor to locate the aircraft), and also listening devices to pick up the aircraft’s flight data recorder.

Confirmed MH370 plane debris was found on Reunion Island in July 2015 and off the coast of Mozambique in February 2016, which was consistent with what we know about ocean currents. In 2018, OceanInfinity, a private exploration company, also searched 25,000 square kilometers, but without success.

Since then, a mixture of highly trained experts and members of the public have sought to assist the search. These efforts have varied from simple to really advanced data analysis. They have attempted to map the locations and timings of plane debris, and other maritime debris, as well as model drift currents. In doing so, they are attempting to reconstruct where these may have originated from, which is no small task.

Analysis of the MH370 flight path has been pieced together from two different types of radar – primary and secondary – as well as the intermittent data “pings” from the plane to the Inmarsat satellite. The results suggest that it diverted south from its intended flight path.

Another technique called weak signal propagation (WSPR data (a way of using radio emission to track objects such as planes), had defined a specific but very large search area, some of which has already been searched.

Available hydroacoustic data (based on the way sound propagates in water) of the sea floor has also been analyzed. However, only a relatively small area was covered and the marine sea floor in this region can be very rugged. There are deep submarine canyons that can hide objects much bigger than a plane.

Lessons from studying past flight disasters also informed the search. These included the 2009 Yemenia plane crash in the Indian Ocean.

Recovery operation

For inland or coastal water searches, a phased investigation strategy is suggested as best practice, where investigators look to identify water depths, major current strengths and directions, together with pre-existing site information, before specialist search teams are employed using methods, equipment configurations and personnel that have all been accredited.

However this reliance on technology can be problematic. Even in small waterways, the presence of vegetation in the search area or a target buried by sediment can make these searches difficult.

Much of the Southern Indian Ocean sea floor is rugged and relatively unmapped, with water depths of up to 7,400 meters. It’s away from regular shipping lanes and commercial flight patterns, with few fishing boats, no significant land masses and some of the worst winds and weather in the world. These factors also make it a very challenging area to search.

In deep water (more than 2-3,000 meters) deploying sonar is cumbersome and prohibitively expensive. It also takes a long time to generate data. A major challenge for scanning technologies is achieving accuracy at these kinds of depths due to the scattering of the signal caused by uneven, especially rocky substrates on the sea floor.

The development of more advanced autonomous submersible vehicles may hold the key to finding MH370 in the Southern Indian Ocean, along with post-processing of raw data which can clarify what can be attributed to rocks as well as sea-floor hummocks and pockets.

This can distinguish between the sea floor and the objects being searched for. However, the area where MH370 disappeared is vast, meaning future searches will remain just as challenging as when the plane first went missing in 2014.

Jamie Pringle is a Reader in Forensic Geoscience at Keele University.

Alastair Ruffell is a Reader at the School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast.

Ruth Morgan is Vice Dean Engineering and Professor of Crime and Forensic Science at UCL.

This article appears courtesy of The Conversation and may be found in its original form here.

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

MH370

MY THEORY: WATERSPOUT 

 11 passengers injured after 'freak' turbulence forces UK-bound jet to be diverted to Bermuda

Alex Barton of The Telegraph


  Dec 27 2023

There's a type of turbulence that can’t be seen by pilots, or easily picked up by 

radar or satellite. It could become more prevalent.

Freak turbulence has left 11 passengers injured on a Manchester-bound flight.

About 225 passengers and 13 crew were on board the Maleth Aero flight on Sunday (Monday NZT) after a P&O Caribbean cruise.

The turbulence occurred around two hours after departure from Barbados, with pilots forced to divert the aircraft to Bermuda.

Upon landing, 11 passengers were treated for minor injuries.

Passengers stayed in hotels in Bermuda

Lack of available flights coupled with reduced operational hours over the festive period meant passengers had to stay in hotels in Bermuda over Christmas, a P&O spokesperson said.

A replacement plane was due to take off at 4pm on Boxing Day (local time) and arrive back in the UK in the early hours of December 27.

A P&O Cruises spokesperson said: “A flight from Barbados to Manchester was diverted to Bermuda following freak turbulence.

Maleth Aero is a Maltese passenger charter airline.

‘Very sorry’ for disruption

“Having explored all flying options and due to airport operating times, guests are in hotels today [Dec 25].

“The flight home is due to depart tomorrow morning [Dec 26], following required legislative aircraft checks.

“We are very sorry for this disruption to their journey following their holiday and we are working with the airline and hotels to take care of them and ensure they get home as soon as possible tomorrow.”

Owen Darrell, Bermuda’s minister of national security, said: “We are aware of the situation and are diligently working to ensure the wellbeing of all involved. We are extremely grateful for the quick response of all our emergency services personnel who ensured the safety of the passengers and crew.”

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MH370 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT 

Large Landspout Swirls Through Kansas

NOT A TORNADO

Storyful News & Weather

 Sep 20, 2023

What the National Weather Service said was a landspout was seen swirling near Nekoma, Kansas, as the area was under a severe thunderstorm warning on September 19.

Credit: Lindsey Broin via Storyful

 

WATERSPOUT

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MH370 

Waterspout spotted in Southwest Florida

WNCT-TV 9 On Your Side Jun 21, 2023

A waterspout was spotted swirling along the coast of southwest Florida on Wednesday, June 21, as stormy weather moved into the region, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

Waterspout causes chaos on Florida beach and injures two

5 days ago

 

Massive waterspout spotted off the coast of the Florida Keys

2 months ago

WKYC Channel 3

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for WATERSPOUT MH370 

Waterspout hits a beach in Florida, USA

The wind picked up chairs and umbrellas and even knocked over a beachgoer.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for MH370 

I BELIEVE A WATERSPOUT TOOK DOWN THIS FLIGHT

Scroll Staff
3 hours ago

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CLIMATE CHANGE WILL INCREASE THEM

Environment Canada issues waterspout watch for much of Great Lakes region

(Courtesy: Gavin van Camp)

Abby O'Brien, CTV News Toronto

 Multi-Platform Writer
Published Monday, September 26, 2022

Environment Canada (EC) has issued waterspout watches for much of the Great Lakes region in Ontario Monday.

In a statement issued Monday morning, EC said waterspout watches are in effect for a large portion of the Great Lakes, including Lake Huron, Lake St. Clair, Lake Simcoe, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario.

In most regions, the waterspout watches have been issued alongside warnings for strong winds.




Environment Canada (EC) has issued waterspout watches for much of the Great Lakes region in Ontario Monday.According to Environment Canada, waterspouts can form during unstable conditions when cool air moves over relatively warmer water, resulting in what looks like a tornado of water, hovering over the surface.

“Mariners are urged to take all necessary precautions and prepare for the possibility of waterspout activity,” EC said Monday. “Postpone voyage or seek safe harbour if possible.”

Waterspouts are generally isolated in nature, ECCC says, but can occur in families of two or more. The agency says they are “short-lived” in nature, typically lasting approximately 20 minutes or less.

On Aug. 29, a tornado that initially developed as a waterspout over Lake Huron caused minor damage in Lambton and Bruce counties.

 

First significant Great Lakes waterspout outbreak of the season

Digital Writers
The Weather Network

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Monday, September 26th 2022,  - Cooler air spreading into central Canada will heighten the threat for waterspouts, thunderstorms, and windy conditions this

Multi-day threat for waterspouts across the Great Lakes

The first significant Great Lakes waterspout outbreak of the season is upon us, as a broad upper level trough creeps across Ontario this week bringing the threat for multiple days of waterspouts, pesky rain showers and isolated pop-up thunderstorms. A chillier temperature trend will also mark the first half of the week, with the threat for frost lingering outside of urban areas. More more on what the final week of September will bring, read below.

Visit our Complete Guide to Fall 2022 for an in-depth look at the Fall Forecast, tips to plan for it and much more!

This week: Pesky rain showers and waterspouts

The fall season certainly wasted no time kicking into high gear, as temperatures took a significant tumble last week, remaining cooler as we start this final week of September.

"These types of weather patterns will bring a little bit of everything including sunshine, cloud, showers and thunderstorms," says Kelly Sonnenburg, a meteorologist at The Weather Network. "Temperatures are crisp, but can always temporarily warm when the sun shines. They make it extremely difficult to plan your outfit for the day."

Along with the cooler, early October-like temperatures, will be the threat for waterposuts as an upper level low pressure system tracks over the warm waters of the Great Lakes sparking the risk for waterspouts to develop.

According to Sonnenburg, this will be the first significant waterspout outbreak of the season across the Great Lakes.

As of Monday morning, numerous waterspouts had already be spotted across Lake Erie.

This specific weather pattern is expected to stick around through Wednesday before pushing east and making way for the return of drier conditions late week and into the weekend with high pressure.

The next round of precipitation expected early next week could be the remnant moisture from Hurricane Ian, however this is not a complete guarantee as not all long range computer models have it tracking into the Great Lakes.

A milder pattern is expected to return and dominate during early and mid October.

WATCH: Waterspout spotted over Erie amid multi-day threat for Great Lakes

Large waterspout spins across Erie as outbreak likely for Great Lakes

A waterspout was caught on camera along the shore of Lake Erie. Watch dark clouds move slowly over the open waters.

0 seconds of 33 secondsVolume 40%

 

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