Penny Wong: Australian government ‘ready’ to help new search for MH370

The Australian government says it is “ready to assist” in a search for MH370 as families mark a grim milestone.

The Australian government says it is “ready to assist” in any future search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 as the families of the six Australians on-board mark a grim milestone a decade on.

The Boeing 777 disappeared about 38 minutes after leaving Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia bound for Beijing on March 8, 2014, with all 227 passengers and 12 crew on-board presumed dead.

The disappearance has become one of aviation’s greatest mysteries and one of its most expensive searches, involving the Australian, Chinese, and Malaysian governments and private companies.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the government was “supportive of all practical efforts to find MH370” in light of renewed interest by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in a new search.

“Ten years on from the disappearance of MH370, our sincere sympathies remain with the loved ones of the 239 passengers and crew on-board, including seven people who called Australia home,” she said.

“Australia stands ready to assist the Malaysian government if it considers that Australian agencies are able to offer technical information as a result of their involvement in previous searches.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who said his government would consider a new search, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Under international aviation conventions, Malaysia is responsible for deciding whether to continue searching for the missing aircraft once it has been determined there are no survivors on-board.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim this week said his government would consider a new search if credible evidence was made available, stating “whatever needs to be done, must be done”.

Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Locke earlier said there had been talks with marine robotics company Ocean Infinity and he would “meet them anytime that they are ready to come to Malaysia”.

A spokesperson for Ocean Infinity confirmed the company had submitted a proposal for a new search for the aircraft.

“Finding MH370 and bringing some resolution for all connected with the loss of the aircraft has been a constant in our minds since we left the southern Indian Ocean in 2018,” they said.

“Since then, we have focused on driving the transformation of operations at sea; innovating with technology and robotics to further advance our ocean search capabilities.

“This search is arguably the most challenging, and indeed pertinent one out there. We’ve been working with many experts, some outside of Ocean Infinity, to continue analysing the data in the hope of narrowing the search area down to one.”

While Anthony Albanese noted the “difficult period” families of those lost would endure this week while speaking at the ASEAN summit, the Prime Minister fell short of committing to a new search.

Plane wreck hunter Blaine Gibson (right) with pieces of debris of the missing MH370. Picture: supplied

“We acknowledge the ongoing grief for loved ones and deeply regret that the aircraft has been unable to be located despite the extensive searches which took place in the south Indian Ocean,” he said.

“It will be a very difficult time for people because they weren’t given the certainty that would come with a successful search mission. It is very difficult … in particular, for our friends in Malaysia.”

The search for MH370 was suspended in January 2017 after yielding no evidence of the plane’s final resting place other than pieces of marine debris located off the coast of Madagascar and Mozambique.

In its final report, the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau stated it had narrowed down the possible crash site to an area of 25,000sq km but the underwater search had cost some $US155m ($A235m).

A ceremony to mark the 10-year anniversary of MH370’s disappearance. Facebook / MH370 Families

Ocean Infinity, which had also been involved in the search for Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, first started searching for MH370 under contract with the Malaysian government in 2018.

While that search was abandoned, the company has expressed a willingness in recent months to relaunch the search on a “no find, no fee” basis as it tests new autonomous submarine technology.

Families mark 10 long years

Dozens of friends and family members of those lost on MH370, as well as their supporters, gathered for a solemn ceremony this week at the Nu Empire Shopping Centre in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.

The ceremony, replete with dancers, informational displays and children’s crafts, was organised by MH370 Families, an association of families of passengers and crew who were on-board the fateful plane.

In a video message, Queensland woman Amanda Lawton said her parents Catherine and Robert Lawton had been travelling from Kuala Lumpur to China on MH 370 when the aircraft disappeared.

Candles commemorating the lives lost. Picture: Facebook / MH370 Families

“We lost the love of our lives, Cathy and Bob Lawton. Mum and Dad. My mom was my best friend. We would speak every day and spend every weekend together,” an emotional Ms Lawson said.

“Ten years have passed and we still don’t have answers about where our loved ones are. In that time, so much has changed in our lives. My sister and I each have two children, making six grandchildren.”

When asked by her children where their grandparents were, Ms Lawson said it “broke my heart that I don’t have answers”, and her parents had missed out on so many new memories with them.

Catherine and Robert Lawton were on-board MH370. Pictured: Supplied

They had been travelling with Mary and Rodney Burrows. Pictured: Supplied

Mr and Mrs Lawton were travelling with Brisbane couple Rod and Mary Burrows when they boarded MH370, alongside Sydney couple Gu Naijun and Li Yuan and Perth-based New Zealander Paul Weeks.

The families of the plane’s Malaysian occupants, including V.P.R. Nathan, whose wife, Anne Daisy, was on MH370, and Intan Maizura Othaman, whose husband was a flight attendant, were at the ceremony.

Grace Nathan, daughter of Ms Daisy, urged people to stand in solidarity with those lost on MH 370. On her mother’s birthday, she wrote: “What I wouldn’t give to hear your voice. I’m sorry we haven’t found you.”

New theories spark hope

The anniversary also comes amid a flurry of new reports over recent months into the final resting place of MH370 – and what caused the probable crash – sparking new hope among families.

A “groundbreaking” report published in September by researchers Richard Godfrey, Hannes Coetzee and Simon Maskell used WSPR to help detect and track the plane’s flight path.

The report, which used disturbances in radio signals stored in a global database to track the plane, suggested the missing wreckage of MH370 could be located about 1560km west of the Perth coast.

Estimated MH370 flight path, with the island of Sumatra in the top right. Picture: Supplied

Aerospace expert Jean-Luc Marchand and pilot Patrick Blelly that same month also suggested where they believed the plane may have crashed and called on Ocean Infinity to consider it for searching.

During a lecture before the Royal Aeronautical Society, the pair said the new search area could be canvassed in just 10 days in an open call for help, and the plane may have been deliberately crashed.

The cause of MH370’s sudden change of course and subsequent disappearance has for a decade sparked a wide gamut of rumours, ranging from the highly researched to the outright fanciful.

Early rumour focused on the plane’s pilot, Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, and whether he may have deliberately crashed the plane, while some went so far as to say it was an FBI operation.