Regional Aviation Association of Australia The Search for Malaysia Airlines MH370 Australian Search and Rescue (SAR) Experience Craig Condon RCC Chief Joint Rescue Coordination Centre Australia
History On 1st July 1997 Australian Search and Rescue (AusSAR) commenced operations as an integrated Aviation-Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Centre within the Emergency Response Division of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Prior to 1/7/97 Aviation SAR belonged to Airservices Australia (ATC) Maritime SAR was and still part of AMSA
History con t Cooperative plan between the Australian SAR authorities SAR Authorities: Commonwealth of Australia : AMSA (JRCC Australia / AusSAR), Australian Defence Force (ADF) State and Territory Police One SAR authority in overall coordination Others will act in support
Australian National SAR Plan Basic Responsibilities JRCC Australia (AMSA) Registered civil aircraft Merchant Shipping Persons on or from vessel at sea* Distress beacon alerts Manned space vehicles State/Territory Police Persons/vehicles on land Persons/vessels inland waterways and port limits Persons on or from vessel at sea* Unregistered civil aircraft Defence (ADF) Military craft and personnel All Support overall coordination authority * Determined by agreement using Best Placed provisions
Australia s Search and Rescue Region 54 Million Sqr klms 1/10 th of the world s surface 85% of our area of responsibility is ocean
ICAO/IMO SAR Relationship International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Both coordinate, on global basis, member States efforts to provide SAR services. ICAO / IMO goal ensure SAR services available wherever people fly or sail worldwide.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 (9M-MRO) Boeing 777-200ER with 239 persons on board. Departed Kuala Lumpur for Beijing 071641 UTC (8 th March 2014 local Malaysia time). 1707 UTC Final automatically transmitted position from aircraft (ACARS). 1719 UTC No further radio communications from crew 1722 UTC Final ATC SSR fix. 1725 UTC Deviated from planned flight route. 1822 UTC Final primary RADAR fix. Inmarsat communications log indicated continued flight for further 6 hours. 18 th March Search commenced in Australian Search and Rescue Region (SRR). Source: ATSB website
Flight Path derived from Primary and Secondary RADAR data. Source: NTSB, Google, ATSB website.
Information: Many Sources some examples International expert technical group Flight details - plan, fuel load, performance data Emergency equipment - distress beacons, slide rafts, etc B777 structural materials (what will float?) Cargo Manifest (debris analysis) Satellite imagery/radar Weather and environmental atmospheric and oceanographic Drift Underwater hydroacoustics Members of the public, conspiracies, expert opinions, general advice, some helpful some not!
Inmarsat Satellite
Source: Inmarsat, Boeing, Google, ATSB website.
Search Challenges Length of Search 17 th March to 28 th April 2014 (42 days) Remote area, long distance offshore Vast and changing search areas Minimal data to calculate accurate splash point Elapsed time impact on oceanic drift and debris dispersal Tropical Cyclone influence on drift calculations and search Search aircraft available endurance Poor weather and search conditions on a number of days
Search Challenges con t Time for ships to reach aircraft sightings No ELT detections Last known position versus subsequent time flown to unknown location Elapsed time between satellite imagery analysis and tasking aircraft/ships to investigate possible objects Multi-national coordination and communication Media appetite
SLDMB Self Locating Datum Marker buoy MetOcean Product GPS receiver and Iridium transmitter average life 21 days Zero Leeway model confirms actual surface Total Water Movement Provides sea water temperature varied from 7 to 28 o C
33 x SLDMB s successfully deployed to validate drift modelling Comparisons run against all three oceanic current data sets used for modelling
Day 52 - Overall Drifted Probability Area
Day 52 Drifted Probability Area Comparison East Coast Australia
Joint Agency Coordination Centre Established 31 st March Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development lead Appointed Angus Houston and supported by staff from various agencies Overseen by Inter-departmental Committee chaired by PM&C Effectively took whole of Government lead from AMSA Assumed lead role for internal Government briefing, media and family liaison Operational feed from AMSA, ATSB and Defence WA Government support http://www.jacc.gov.au
Search Phase Transition 28 th April 2014 Search for floating debris suspended Underwater search intensified Search lead by ATSB Overall investigation Malaysian Government Annex 12 Search and Rescue transitioned to Annex 13 Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation
Search Statistics 42 day search. 345 flight sorties. 3177 total flight hours. 4.7 million square km cumulative search area Search aircraft: Civil Australia and NZ (10) Military Australia (5), USA (2), China (2), New Zealand (2), Japan (3), Malaysia (2), Republic of Korea (2) Search vessels: Civil Merchant ships Military Australia, China, USA, UK, Malaysia
Search Aircraft Four Royal Australian Air Force(RAAF) AP-3C Orions United States Navy P8 Poseidon RoyalNewZealandAirForceP-3K2Orion Two Chinese People s Liberation Army Ilyushin IL-76 TwoJapaneseSelfDefenceForceP3Orion OneJapaneseCoastGuardG500jet OneRepublicofKoreaP3Orion One Republic of Korea C-130 Hercules Two Malaysian C-130 Hercules Two Civil Bombardier Global Express jets Civil Gulfstream G500 jet Civil Gulfstream G650 jet Civil A319 Airbus
COMBINED MILITARY ASSISTANCE
Media Huge national and international demand AMSA provided daily briefings supported by various interviews, online media, etc. Website http://www.amsa.gov.au/media/incidents/mh370-search.asp Social Media played a large part.
AMSA Media Stats Facebook March 16-1345 likes. March 31-5658 likes. Twitter March 15-1511 followers. March 31-25,151 followers. 2,000 + phone calls in a two week period to media hotline 3,300 calls received between January September 2013.
Questions? KLARCC JRCC Australia