News and theories about the missing Malaysian plane

"Cape Town - Trucking companies have lost up to R350m in stolen fuel to a blue light syndicate operating between Durban and Gauteng, Conrad van der Merwe, regional director Gauteng of Justicia Investigations, disclosed on Monday.

Most of these sophisticated tanker hijackings took place within 150km of Johannesburg. Vehicles were carrying petrol, diesel and paraffin."


http://www.fin24.com/Economy/Petrol-truck-hijackings-likely-to-rise-20131014

 

Transport safety chief says next phase of underwater search months away | CNN

 

The search area is in international waters, I don't see why the Australian taxpayer should be footing the bill for it. And the bill will be huge.

 

I know it's not very 'Efficient', but read the whole article.

 

Satellite data released after long wait | CNN

 

What did I miss ? I can't see any breakdown of who is paying what, but given that the Fed Govt here has recently drastically slashed spending on all sorts of things, their offering a blank cheque on this is a sharp contrast, especially since this isn't a rescue operation, and no lives can be saved.

 

We do thank the good people of Australia for the public service they have provided to the world. The US has also supplied equipment and expertise. I wouldn't be surprised if Boeing also contributed.

 

Not wanting to seem like "Mr Mean" here, but the uproar over the budgetary austerity down here is reading off the scale, yet the PM is saying "what ever it takes" to find a plane that may not even be there, and realistically Australia has no more stake in than any random country. Doubly strange since Malaysia never misses a chance to stick it to the old Aussies !

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...robust-history-of-rancor-and-barbed-comments/

 

It seems resonable that the parties that owned and operated the plane plus the countries that are the most represented by passenger count share the costs. Australians only number 6 . . .

 

First, as a Kiwi, i should say something ‘smart’ about Aussies paying for things, but i wont. Good on yer mate!

i have not been directly involved in this search, but in the ones i have; the initial search was conducted by the country who regard themselves as the ‘keeper’ of that section of the earths surface. In this case, Australia made a good choice, they really don't want China or India swanning around down there, they may want to stay.

Australia will ‘lead’ such a search, but use resources as needed. Sometimes a country will choose to regard it as a military training exercise, and sometimes, as here, will farm it out to suitable contractors.

As its usually a cost+ basis, and not a contract as such, the contractor might ask for monthly payments, but though possible, are rare.

Finally the job is done, plane found, or declared missing, and the bill is toted up. Technically, the Malaysian airline is responsible here, though the Malaysian government owns the airline, so they are finally responsible. They do pay the bill, though in many case, bills like this are rounded up into national debt, and finally become part of the IMF or World Bank settlement. Typically the contractor carries the cost burden until the job is finished, and then for a few years after that while the various parties (IMF etc) ‘discuss’ it, but eventually they are paid. Classically this takes a long time, so these companies need deep pockets to start with. These ‘companies’ are often consortiums, formed to do this particular job, share the cost burden, and grab individual experts as needed. These 'experts', like me, usually get expenses, but must wait for the end to get 'their' money as well. They roll the cost of money into their charges too, but it still takes years. The good companies (consortiums) have first class equipment, ships, and personnel, but there are, or were, a few seriously underfunded ‘shoestring’ operations out there. Normally Australia would only have to bear administrative costs immediately, but even that is eventually reimbursed.

Typically, the Americans, Boeing, and Universities are very generous, lending equipment and personnel at little or no charge. It gives them an opportunity to test new equipment, and techniques. The bill itself is subject to close scrutiny, so inventing and building new equipment is rarely sanctioned, but development of new equipment and techniques is always a possibility. Acoustic Inferomity being one such for underwater search.

Australia, or other selected host nations, might get access to the latest American and/or British SAR equipment, early, or at all. In this case P-8’s, or some surface assets early? I'm surprised we haven't heard more about MAD detection, perhaps its too deep, or there is too much metal in the sea bed.

 

Nuffink there, they say now, so far the search has cost about $10 million per false ping !

 

MH370 search runs cold in area where ‘pings’ were heard | WASHINGTON POST

 

Australian PM Tony Abbott opened his mouth too soon in all -but claiming it had been found a few weeks ago, you'd just hate to think his seeming eagerness to spend any amount of money to find it is influenced by a desire to be proven right after all. They've allotted something like another $60 million to hire private companies to continue the search from August, putting that amount of dosh on a long-shot imo, won't sit well with the public being told to tighten the belt.

 

Mh-370 search

Mr Efficiency,

You are right, very tactless of your PM. Even if he expects to be reimbursed at some time, not a very encouraging thing to say.

 

Despite there being distressed relatives of the lost, MH370 is not a soap opera. There is natural closure at this point 'Sorry folks, we did our best but we can't explain what happened nor find it'. Just my opinion.