Search for flight MH370 will go on, promises Australian PM Abbott

Perth, Australia: Australia’s prime minister says the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is “an extraordinarily difficult exercise” but that it will go on as long as possible. Tony Abbott said Monday that although no debris has been found in the southern Indian Ocean that can be linked to the plane missing for more than three weeks, the searchers are “well, well short” of any point where they would scale the hunt back. [caption id=“attachment_1458339” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The search operations will continue, says Australia’s PM. AP[/caption] Abbott says the best brains in the world are applying themselves to this task and adds: “If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it.” The Boeing 777 disappeared March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard. He said the search that has been going on for more than three weeks is operating on guestimates “until we locate some actual wreckage from the aircraft and then do the regression analysis that might tell us where the aircraft went into the ocean.” The first planes from Monday’s hunt were over the search area about 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles) west of Australia. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said 10 planes and 10 ships — with more than 100 personnel in the air and 1,000 sailors at sea — will take part, with some sections of the zone expected to experience low clouds and rain. The aircraft and ships are scouring a search zone that was redefined based on satellite data from the Boeing 777, although after several days no debris has been found that can be associated with the flight, officials say. Only “fishing equipment and other flotsam” have been spotted. Abbott said he was not putting a time limit on the search. “We owe it to everyone to do whatever we reasonably can and we can keep searching for quite some time to come … and, as I said, the intensity of our search and the magnitude of operations is increasing, not decreasing.” In Kuala Lumpur, several dozen angry Chinese relatives of Flight 370 passengers visited a temple Monday to pray for their loved ones. They flew to Malaysia on Sunday and staged a protest to demand “evidence, truth, dignity” from Malaysian authorities. The planes taking part in Monday’s search include P-3 Orions from Australia, New Zealand, Japan ans South Korea, plus a Japanese coast guard Gulfstream jet, a Chinese Ilyushin Il-76, a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon, two Malaysian C-130 Hercules and one civil jet acting as a communications relay. It takes planes about 2 1/2 hours to get to the area, allowing a five-hour search before they must return. Associated Press