KUALA
LUMPUR: The search
for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which vanished during a trip
from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing continues to be a complicated journey.
Apart from the vast search area, the search and rescue team also face brutal weather. Also, despite the advanced technology used in the aircrafts deployed, the best tool to search for any objects are with their own eyes.
"It is incredibly fatiguing work. If it's bright and glaring obviously sunglasses help, but there's only so much you can do," said Flight Lt. Stephen Graham, tactical coordinator for the crew on board a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion that has made six sorties into the southern Indian Ocean search zone.
He told AP that the team cannot fully rely on the technology.
"The P-3 has a lot of really advanced sensors and they're really useful in our other roles, but for search and rescue, when you can't guarantee a large or a metallic target, vision is the best that you've got," he added.
They might not have perfect vision, but they do need to correct it to 20/20 with contacts or glasses. They must also be detail-oriented and constantly move their eyes in an X pattern or up and down.
"When your eyes sit at a single focus, they do seem to lock into that and it's very easy to glaze over and start missing things. So one of the things we're trained to do is just shift your focal point — so look at the wing tip or look inside just for half a second and then out again, and try and keep your mind active," Graham told AP.
To avoid any fatigues on board the aircraft, every crew members rotate their positions. Effectiveness starts to wane when one stays in the same position for an hour, said Graham.
"As humans, we're not really good monitors, we're not really good at sitting in a control room and watching for the gauges to move. And that's really what you're doing with search and rescue and recovery is you're looking for something," said Ron Bishop, who once trained spotters and was formerly second-in-charge of the U.S. Air Force Rescue and Special Operations School at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The weather adds more complication to the spotters. As reported by AP, when it's calm and the seas are glassy, anything unusual is easy to spot. When the wind is up and the waves are high, the added motion and color from the whitecaps are a distraction. The speed of the aircraft means there is little time to verify what an object is before it has slipped from view.
The search for Flight 370 remains a huge, complex mission, but Graham remained optimistic as the team has previously found smaller objects.
"You might be looking for a single canoe in the vastness of the Pacific and we do find them. So there is always hope," he ended.
Apart from the vast search area, the search and rescue team also face brutal weather. Also, despite the advanced technology used in the aircrafts deployed, the best tool to search for any objects are with their own eyes.
"It is incredibly fatiguing work. If it's bright and glaring obviously sunglasses help, but there's only so much you can do," said Flight Lt. Stephen Graham, tactical coordinator for the crew on board a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion that has made six sorties into the southern Indian Ocean search zone.
He told AP that the team cannot fully rely on the technology.
"The P-3 has a lot of really advanced sensors and they're really useful in our other roles, but for search and rescue, when you can't guarantee a large or a metallic target, vision is the best that you've got," he added.
They might not have perfect vision, but they do need to correct it to 20/20 with contacts or glasses. They must also be detail-oriented and constantly move their eyes in an X pattern or up and down.
"When your eyes sit at a single focus, they do seem to lock into that and it's very easy to glaze over and start missing things. So one of the things we're trained to do is just shift your focal point — so look at the wing tip or look inside just for half a second and then out again, and try and keep your mind active," Graham told AP.
To avoid any fatigues on board the aircraft, every crew members rotate their positions. Effectiveness starts to wane when one stays in the same position for an hour, said Graham.
"As humans, we're not really good monitors, we're not really good at sitting in a control room and watching for the gauges to move. And that's really what you're doing with search and rescue and recovery is you're looking for something," said Ron Bishop, who once trained spotters and was formerly second-in-charge of the U.S. Air Force Rescue and Special Operations School at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The weather adds more complication to the spotters. As reported by AP, when it's calm and the seas are glassy, anything unusual is easy to spot. When the wind is up and the waves are high, the added motion and color from the whitecaps are a distraction. The speed of the aircraft means there is little time to verify what an object is before it has slipped from view.
The search for Flight 370 remains a huge, complex mission, but Graham remained optimistic as the team has previously found smaller objects.
"You might be looking for a single canoe in the vastness of the Pacific and we do find them. So there is always hope," he ended.
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