
MH370 search: why give hope when there was none? - Sami_Lehtinen
http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2114940/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-search-why-give-hope-when-there-was
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angry_octet
I don't know what axe the author has to grind, but the article is full of
half-truths and sophistry. All this pretending that the French should have
done the search because of the Air France crash -- the successful part of the
search was by the US company Metron, who have been the world leaders for
decades. If you want to read about it:
[https://www.bea.aero/uploads/tx_elyextendttnews/metron.searc...](https://www.bea.aero/uploads/tx_elyextendttnews/metron.search.analysis.pdf)
[https://www.informs.org/ORMS-Today/Public-Articles/August-
Vo...](https://www.informs.org/ORMS-Today/Public-Articles/August-
Volume-38-Number-4/In-Search-of-Air-France-Flight-447)

Metron didn't win the tender to do the search, but they confirmed that it is a
much more difficult problem, with far fewer constraints:
[https://www.wired.com/2015/08/where-to-find-
mh370/](https://www.wired.com/2015/08/where-to-find-mh370/)
[http://fusion2015.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/07/Fusion2015_...](http://fusion2015.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/07/Fusion2015_PlenaryTalk_ColleenKeller.pdf)

Which is entirely consistent with the ATSB/DST report:
[https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5733804/Bayesian_Methods_MH370...](https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5733804/Bayesian_Methods_MH370_Search_3Dec2015.pdf)
[https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5747317/ae2014054_mh370-defini...](https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5747317/ae2014054_mh370-definition_of_underwater_search_areas_3dec2015_update.pdf)
[https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-10-0379-0](https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-10-0379-0)

As to the unprovable contention that it was all a PR stunt to assuage the
fears of the flying public and a sop to the relatives, yes politicans are
ghastly, but you don't spend that much money if you think there is no chance
in finding it.

