The search for the missing
Malaysian jet suffered yet another blow today after Australia ruled out a large
area in the Indian Ocean where four acoustic signals were detected as the final
resting place of the plane. The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Bluefin-21,
completed its last mission searching the remaining areas in the vicinity of the
acoustic signals detected in early April by the Towed Pinger Locator deployed
from the Australian ship Ocean Shield. "The data collected on yesterday's
mission has been analysed. As a result, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre
can advise that no signs of aircraft debris have been found by the Autonomous
Underwater Vehicle since it joined the search effort," the Joint Agency
Coordination Centre that is leading the search said. "The Australian
Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has advised that the search in the vicinity of
the acoustic detections can now be considered complete and in its professional
judgment, the area can now be discounted as the final resting place of
MH370," it said. Since the Bluefin-21 has been involved in the search, it
has scoured over 850 square kilometres of the ocean floor looking for signs of
the missing aircraft. The Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 -
carrying 239 people, including five Indians, an Indo-Canadian and 154 Chinese
nationals - had mysteriously vanished on March 8 after taking off from Kuala
Lumpur. The Ocean Shield departed the search area last night and Chinese survey
ship Zhu Kezhen has already begun conducting the bathymetric survey—or mapping
of the ocean floor of the areas provided by the ATSB. Meanwhile, A US Navy
official today said the acoustic pings at the center of the search for missing
Malaysia Airlines plane in the southern Indian Ocean for the past seven weeks
did not come from the plane's black boxes. "Authorities now almost
universally believe the pings did not come from the onboard data or cockpit
voice recorders but instead came from some other man-made source unrelated to
the jetliner that disappeared on March 8," US Navy deputy director of
ocean engineering Michael Dean was quoted as saying by CNN. "If the pings
had come from the recorders, searchers would have found them," he said. As
advised by Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, the search for MH370
would continue and will now involves three major stages. These stages would
comprise reviewing all existing information and analysis to define a search
zone of up to 60,000 sq km along the arc in the southern Indian Ocean;
conducting a bathymetric survey to map the sea floor in the defined search
area; and acquiring the specialist services required for a comprehensive search
of the sea floor in that area.
Congress leader Manishankar Aiyar attracted opposition BJP's ire today in Rajya Sabha when he said he was not interested in listening to speech of a BJP member on vote on account, prompting the Chair to adjourn the House amid uproar. During the Zero Hour, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien allowed Aiyar, who wanted to ask a question, to do so, which was opposed by BJP members. Kurien asked Aiyar whether he yielded to allow others to speak, to which he said he had no objection and he can ask his question later. As the House got ready to initiate discussion on Vote on Account, Kurien said, "Let us reduce the discussion to two hours from four hours," which was opposed by BJP members including Piyush Goyal who was given a chance to speak on Vote on Account. When it was agreed that discussion will take place as per schedule, Aiyar remarked he was not interested in listening to the speech by BJP member. "You had given me the chance to ask a question
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