In a public statement, after the April 8 day’s search for #MH370, RAAF P3 Orion captain Flt Lt said that he was optimistic about the wreckage being found.

Unlike the AF447 search at a parallel point in the search timeline one month in, there has been no visual confirmation of any wreckage or debris, possibly due to tropical storms in the Indian Ocean. The official statement is that the pings have been narrowed down to a twelve mile radius, but searchers are still trying to narrow this area.

Once the area has been narrowed down, an autonomous underwater vehicle will be deployed in a grid (so-called Mowing Lawn pattern) until wreckage has been located.

If the wreckage is found soon, it will have taken twenty-three months less than the search for Air France 447. So one should be perhaps less optimistic about the search, and more determined.

Most recently, Australia announced the search area down to 75,000 sq km. Searchers plan to keep using the Ocean Shield, because it searches more area faster. Once the area is pinned down, they plan to deploy the AUV.

The post #MH370 Statement by Orion Captain regarding #Search Status first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.