Aviation Experts Criticise Australia-Led Search For Flight MH370; Fugro Insists On Sound Equipment

Almost a year after organising a multimillion dollar search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australia is in the spotlight for leading the most expensive aviation hunt in history. Despite a massive area covered by the search team, no trace of the aircraft was ever found.

Authorities and search teams are under scrutiny as they continue to look for the MH370 in the remote southern Indian Ocean. After months of searching the deep waters, there was still no sign of the jet nor its 239 passengers and crew.

According to experts who were involved in underwater search missions in the past, authorities and search teams may have easily missed the plane since Fugro NV, the Dutch company at the head of the mission, is not using the appropriate technology in some terrain. They also cite inexperienced personnel as a factor and the inability to locate man-made objects.

Australian authorities had recently announced that Go Phoenix, another search vessel using the world’s best deep sea search equipment and crew, would be pulling out of the mission within weeks. The news heightened concerns since no reason was given for the withdrawal of the ship, reports Stuff.

“Fugro is a big company but they don’t have experience in this kind of search and it’s really a very specialised job,” said Paul Henry Nargeolet, a former French naval officer. He was hired by the BEA, a French air accident investigation agency, to coordinate the search and recovery of Air France Flight AF447 in 2009.

Nargeolet told Reuters that the MH370 search is a “big job.” He said if he was an Australian taxpayer, he would be very mad to see how taxes are being spent that way. Other experts have the same sentiment as Nargeolet. They are worried that unless search vessels pass directly over any wreckage, the sonar scanning on either side of the vessels will not be able to detect the object.

Fugro, the company contracted by the Australian government to use three ships to scan the 60,000 kilometres search area, has denied suggestions that it is using the wrong equipment. The company had insisted its technology has been subjected to rigorous tests.

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