In his first on camera comments on the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Obama offered thoughts and prayers to the relatives of the missing passengers.
"I want them to be assured that we consider this a top priority," Obama told Dallas television station KDFW in an interview at the White House.
"We have put every resource that we have available at the disposal of the search process," he said.
"There has been close cooperation with the Malaysian government."
Obama said the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board and any agency or official that deals with aviation was at the disposal of the investigation. – AFP
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Search crew: Something big down there
PETALING JAYA - A flight crew scouring the southern Indian Ocean for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 say that they were getting radar hits of “significant size”, indicating something was below the water’s surface.
ABC News’ David Wright who is on board the US Navy P-8 Poseidon, said the crew told him the radar indicated “there is something down there”.
It is still too early to tell if the radar hits are related to the missing plane, which was carrying 239 people when it disappeared on March 8, ABC reported.
The P-8 is among four aircrafts and one merchant ship heading to a region off the coast of Australia after two objects that may be related to the plane were spotted by satellite, officials said Thursday.
Australia’s government has also released images of the possible objects.
Debris site roughest
If the debris spotted some 2,500km southwest of Perth is part of the missing MH370, then it is floating in the roughest part of the ocean known for its giant swells.
The Sydney Morning Herald in a report said the debris has been located close to the ‘Roaring Forties’, where winds create giant swells and waves.
Quoting an Australian oceanographer, the newspaper said while there were debris at the surface of the Indian Ocean, the bulk of the ill-fated Boeing 777-200ER could be at the bottom of the sea.
”You may have debris at the surface but the bulk of the aircraft would be at the bottom of the ocean. It is very deep down there, about five kilometres,” said Professor Chari Pattiaratchi, from the University of Western Australia.
“Trying to get something out from five kilometres in the roughest part of the world is going to be extreme,” he was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald.
The currents in the area move from west to east, he added.
”So if it has been in the water for about 10 days it would have drifted about 300 to 400 kilometres to the east towards Perth,” said the expert.
The debris would likely have been travelling about one nautical mile per hour, or one knot.
“If it keeps going it’ll go to the south of Perth or south of Australia,” he said.
The Roaring Forties is located forty degrees south, where there was almost no land to slow down the winds. These create strong, high waves and swell, he said.
The currents extend right through the water column because the area is so deep.
Credible finding
Earlier today, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot told the Australian parliament that search and rescue teams had found two objects which could be from the missing Malaysian airline in the Indian Ocean some 2,500km southwest of Perth.
The objects were found in the southern part of Australia in the vicinity of the search and rescue area for MH370 which went missing on March 8. The Boeing 777-200ER jetliner went missing an hour into its flight form the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing, China.
It was carrying 239 passengers and crew. The runaway plane was last spotted by civilian radar heading towards Vietnam over the South China Sea. Its transponders which sends signal to air traffic control on the plane’s location was switched from inside the jetliner off soon after last contact was made.
The plane was spotted by the military radar an hour after that heading towards the Andaman Sea, on the western side of peninsula Malaysia. Some 27 nations have joined in the search for the missing plane. Malaysian authorities have said the plane flew in either one of the two routes. One was towards the Indian Ocean while the other was across continental Asia, from northern Thailand to Kazakhstan.
The Australian are leading search and rescue operations in the Indian Ocean.
FMT
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