Australian Transport Safety Bureau

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Australian Transport Safety Bureau and Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

Background

On Saturday, 8 March 2014 Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 00:42 am (MYT) and was expected to arrive in Beijing at 6:30 am (MYT). The Boeing 777-200ER was carrying 12 crew and 227 passengers. Communication with the aircraft was lost when it was in the vicinity of waypoint IGARI over the South China Sea. Instead of proceeding toward Vietnam en-route to China the aircraft made a turn-back west across the Malay Peninsula; changed direction again and flew north west towards the Andaman Sea; and then turned south. Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

As the State of Registry for the aircraft 9M-MRO, and the State of the Operator, Malaysia was responsible for the Investigation in accordance with ICAO Annex 13. The Department of Transport (Malaysia) instituted an independent international Investigation Team known as The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau appointed an accredited representative to the Investigation, along with a number of advisors to the accredited representative.

Search

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau was involved in the search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, which was coordinated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. The surface search for MH370 ended on 28 April 2014. The Malaysian Government accepted the Government of Australia’s offer to lead the search and recovery operation in the southern Indian Ocean in support of the Malaysian accident investigation.

Investigation

The ATSB opened an External Aviation Investigation AE-2014-054 and the search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean is documented in the report The Operational Search for MH370

Summary

In brief, Malaysia is responsible for the Investigation. Australia has an Accredited Representative from the ATSB in The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370. Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean and an international surface search was coordinated from Australia by AMSA supported by the Department of Defence (Australia), the ATSB and other agencies with the Joint Agency Coordination Centre providing a single point of contact and liaison. The ATSB led the under-water search for the aircraft. The search was funded by a Tripartite arrangement between the Governments of Malaysia, the People's Republic of China, and Australia.

The ATSB expresses our deepest sympathies to the families of the passengers and crew on board MH370. We share your profound and prolonged grief, and deeply regret that we have not been able to locate the aircraft, nor those 239 souls on board that remain missing.

The Operational Search for MH370, Australian Transport Safety Bureau, 3 October 2017 ATSB-RPT-1306


The ATSB and The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370

On Tuesday, 15 April 2014, 39 days after flight MH370 went missing on Saturday, 8 March 2014, the Malaysian Minister of Defence and Acting Minister for Transport, Hishamuddin Hussein, announced that Cabinet has agreed to set up an International Investigation Team to specifically look into the MH370 incident. The Team, officially named the The Malaysian ICAO Annex 13 Safety Investigation Team for MH370, was instituted by the Minister of Transport on Friday, 25 April 2014. ( Safety Investigation Report MH370/01/2018 2.7.1)

The Team included an Accredited Representative from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).


Accredited Representative

An Accredited Representative is 'a person designated by a State, on the basis of his or her qualifications, for the purpose of participating in an investigation conducted by another State. Where the State has established an accident investigation authority, the designated accredited representative would normally be from that authority.' (ICAO Annex 13).


Resources and links to related articles
  1. Australian Transport Safety Bureau website
    https://www.atsb.gov.au/

  2. Assistance to Malaysian Ministry of Transport in support of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on 7 March 2014 UTC
    Investigation number: AE-2014-054 https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2014/aair/ae-2014-054/

    The Final Report, The Operational Search for MH370 can be downloaded from this webpage.

    The webpage for the Investigation also indexes all of the supporting documents and reports, including search areas, drift reports, flight path analysis etc.


  3. The ATSB was supported by other agencies, including the following:-

In attempting to locate MH370, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau was assisted by many organisations, as acknowledged below:-

The work of many organisations and individuals from Australia and around the world was coordinated by the ATSB. Of particular note was the contribution of members of the search strategy working group (SSWG) including; Inmarsat, Thales, Boeing, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) of the United Kingdom, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States, the Defence Science and Technology Group (DST Group) and the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia. Other significant contributors were the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Geoscience Australia.

Source: The Operational Search for MH370, Australian Transport Safety Bureau, 3 October 2017 ATSB-RPT-1306

The cooperation between these organisations; the level of scientific and technological expertise; international collaboration; consensus, and effort applied to locate the missing aircraft is unprecedented. Failure to locate the wreckage does not prove that it is not there. All of those involved in the search for MH370, on the surface or under water, have absolutely done the best they could to find the aircraft in a vast area of a remote and unforgiving ocean, guided by innovative analyses of fragments of satellite communication data.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau released a Final Report The Operational Search for MH370 on Tuesday, 3 October 2017 and the status of the External Investigation AE-2014-054 is now 'Completed'.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau: The search for MH370 continues


The search for MH370 continues

Monday May 26, 2014

By Martin Dolan, Chief Commissioner

It’s now been more than 11 weeks since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from air traffic control radar after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on a scheduled passenger service to Beijing.

Despite one of the most intensive and coordinated air and sea search efforts ever undertaken, there has not yet been any sign of the missing aircraft.

The complexities surrounding the search cannot be understated. It involves vast areas of the Indian Ocean with only limited known data and aircraft flight information. While it is impossible to determine with certainty where the aircraft may have entered the water, all the available data indicates a highly probable search area close to a long but narrow arc of the southern Indian Ocean.

It is now highly unlikely that surface debris from the aircraft will be spotted. This means that the most effective way to continue the search is to look for MH370 under the water.

The search will be a major undertaking.
The complexities and challenges involved are immense, but not impossible.

Following an announcement by the Prime Minister of Australia in late April, and at the request of the Malaysian government, the ATSB is planning an intensified underwater search of a 60,000 square kilometre area—roughly the size of Tasmania.

As part of its search operations, the ATSB’s initial work involves:

  • reviewing existing information, from an expert satellite working group, to refine a search zone of up to 60,000 square kilometres in the southern Indian Ocean
  • conducting a bathymetric survey to map the search area
  • consulting with domestic and international authorities—including various oceanographic institutions and private companies—to prepare the plan and specialist services required for the next search phase.

The bathymetric survey— or mapping of the ocean floor— has already commenced, with the Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen conducting a survey of the areas provided by the ATSB. Zhu Kezhen will shortly be joined by a contracted commercial survey vessel in June. Taking around three months to complete, the bathymetric survey will give us crucial knowledge of the seafloor terrain needed to begin the underwater search.

The intensified underwater search will aim to locate the aircraft and any evidence (such as aircraft debris and flight recorders) to assist with the Malaysian investigation. The equipment used for the search will likely include a towed sonar, an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle with mounted sonar, and optical imaging equipment. We expect the search to begin in several months and take up to 12 months to complete.

The search will be a major undertaking. The complexities and challenges involved are immense, but not impossible. The best minds from around the world have been reviewing, refining and localising the most likely area where the aircraft entered the water, which is why we remain confident of finding the aircraft.

I encourage you to visit the ATSB’s MH370 webpage. The page features a series of factsheets that provide a great deal of detail on our underwater search operations. We will also provide regular updates on the page as significant information comes to hand.

Source: Australian Transport Safety Bureau ATSB-DOC-080

Note: The URL for the MH370 webpage was http://www.atsb.gov.au/mh370.aspx. This URL can be used to search for the ATSB content on the Web Archive