If they could plot it out the plane would have been found by now. It took extensive analysis to determine whether the plane flew north or south. These weren’t return pings with GPS coordinates. They were measurements of signal strength.
Tony Abbott says “Australia will not rest until we have done everything we humanely can to get to the bottom of this mystery”. It will be quite discouraging if this search area yields nothing.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/tony-abbott-says-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-search-wont-be-abandoned-amid-claims-plane-may-have-landed-not-crashed/story-fniztvne-1226892871899
The article mentions the Chicago Convention, which regulates international air travel. Had never heard about that before. Why Chicago? Also, I don’t think they’re going to find anything.
The Sydney Morning Herald has just reported that debris has washed up on a WA beach that may be from the MH370. Photos have been sent to the ATSB and Malaysian investigators.
Longer version from the ABC, the non-commercial news service here.
It was 1944, and almost every other Allied country was too close to the fighting. Why Chicago instead of NYC or DC? Perhaps it being a transportation hub, availability of hotel rooms and a meeting center, and maintaining the appearance of some independence from the US government?
The thing is that much of the heavy lifting in a search at deep depths is done by private companies. The Bluefin 21 isn’t the Navy’s, it’s owned and operated by Phoenix International Holdings. So that’s a (small) example of en expenditure taxpayers wouldn’t have if there was no search. About the only thing that might be “saved” are the salaries of any Navy personnel. The ships still need to be fueled, maintained, etc., many of the search ships and planes are not military, and as mentioned, much of the work is done by contractors.
Australia says a prolonged search could cost a quarter of a billion dollars.
I’m not saying the pricetag isn’t worth it, but by the same token, the external costs to taxpayers (whether Australian taxpayers, or US) is real.
Yes you make a sound point and I do not think anyone suggests the cost of search and rescue is inconsequential.
The thing is, the military apparatus exists and costs taxpayers of each nation many unseen dollars regardless of whether the soldiers/sailors/airmen sit in their barracks or go out on patrol. Its a fixed cost of being able to project force and stand with ones allies.
The extra cost of carrying out search and rescue must be weighed against the importance to military people of being useful and effective ie. validating their expertise.
A civilian example is the efforts of the Aurora Australis recently helping rescue scientists on the ice-bound Russian ship the Akademik Shokalsky. That cost Australia plenty and maybe the money will be recovered but Australia gained international kudos in the effort.
Much of that would probably be covered by China and Malaysia, wouldn’t it?
I’m not aware of any international treaties governing splitting up the costs of searches in international waters.
It cost them little to rescue the scientists.
Your premise that there are military people sitting around doing nothing is pure nonsense. Their training budget is set in advance and this search operation is not a replacement for that training. It’s real money being spent and training will suffer because of it.
FWIW a while back I saw a talking head on CNN state that the search costs would be covered under the aircraft’s insurance.
Maybe up to a point. But if it really does rack up a quarter-billion dollars?
Nope. Queue Twilight Zone theme. You unlock this door …
I’ve been wondering if there were any contrails picked up by satellites the morning of the event. The Sun would have reflected off it far earlier than daybreak.
Hummm, Interesting question…
A population will hate a military that just stores expensive hardware that (they think) is not being used productively. Better to depreciate it in something like this.
I believe it was mentioned that the policy had a 1 Billion policy limit.
I don’t know if all of that would be available for just the search.
Anyway you look at it that would cut down the expense to the countries searching.