The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 entered
its 44th day on 20/04/2014 Sunday as Australian search officials said a crucial
series of sonar scans of the Indian Ocean floor could be completed within days.
The air, surface and underwater search is now focused on footage
taken by a US Navy deep sea drone, which has narrowed its target range to a
tight 10km circle of sea floor.
The Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) has spent the
past week scouring the remote and largely unmapped stretch of ocean floor some
2,000km northwest of Perth for signs of the plane, which disappeared on March 8
with 239 people on board.
The remote controlled submarine is now in its eighth deep sea
mission with no sign of wreckage so far. The drone has searched about half its
targeted area, the authorities said on 20/04/2014 Sunday.
The Malaysian government has said the search is at a “very
critical juncture” and asked for prayers for its success. Malaysian Acting
Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussain has also said the government may
consider using more AUVs in the search.
After almost two months without a sign of wreckage, the
current underwater search is centred on an area where one of four acoustic
signals believed to be from the plane’s black box recorders was detected on
April 8.
Hopes for further black box signals are fast diminishing,
since the black box batteries are now two weeks past their 30-day expected
lifespan, search officials have said.
But while the Bluefin-21’s target range has narrowed, the
air and surface search continues unabated, with daily sorties a week after
Australian search coordinator retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said the
air and surface component of the search would end within three days.
On 20/04/2014 Sunday, up to 11 military aircraft and 12
ships will help with the search, covering a total of roughly 48,507 square
kilometres (18,729 square miles) across two areas, the Perth-based Joint Agency
Coordination Centre, said in a statement.
A senior Malaysian official on Sunday met with relatives
of those people to discuss financial aid.
Hamzah Zainuddin, deputy minister for foreign affairs,
said the relatives present during the meeting in Kuala Lumpur agreed to submit
individual proposals for a financial assistance package.