Perth, March 21 (IANS) The lead Royal Australian Air force (RAAF) search plane has returned from the remote Southern Indian Ocean Friday with a squadron captain reporting no trace of the missing Malaysian airliner .
Landing at Pearce Airbase, 50 km south of Perth, RAAF Flt. Lt. Russell Adams stepped off the AP-3C Orion search and rescue aircraft at 7.30 p.m. and told the gathering of journalists that despite improved conditions, his squadron had made no progress in the search for signs of the Malaysia airlines flight that vanished without a trace two weeks ago.
Adams, the captain of the crew of the 310 squadron on-station for the search mission, expressed the hope that the search would be quickly resolved, Xinhua reported.
Adams said after zero visibility in the wild southern ocean earlier in the week his team now had a good opportunity "to see anything" visual.
"We got on station today, actually, had really good weather compared to yesterday - 10-km visibility, no rain," he said.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur March 8.
The Boeing 777-200ER was initially presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast in the South China Sea.
The plane was scheduled to land in Beijing at 6.30 a.m. the same day. The 227 passengers on board included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.
Contact with the plane was lost along with its radar signal at 1.40 a.m. when it was flying over the air traffic control area of Ho Chi Minh City.
"Unfortunately conditions back here (some 2500 km north-east of the search area) precluded us staying on the station as long as we liked," Adams added Friday, referring to unexpected gale wind conditions off Perth.
He said the search was continuing with "fellow P3 Orions" and the US Navy high-tech P8 Poseidon joining merchant vessels in a widening search vector but a narrowing timeframe.
Gathering assets now involved in the southern ocean search include the 310 squadron from Pearce airbase made up of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P3 Orions, the US Navy P8 Poseidon aircraft and another Royal New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion.
Three Chinese navy vessels tasked near Sumatra have also volunteered to join the search off Western Australia.
There are now rotating RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft assigned to the search, being coordinated by AMSA.
Five merchant ships responded to a broadcast to shipping issued by the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) Australia this week with four other merchant ships having transited through the area over the past two days with a fifth ship expected to arrive in the area.
The Norwegian car-carrier the St Petersburg has been in the area for several days with no sightings yet of the 24-metre long object spotted through satellite imagery that has so raised hopes around the world.
Adams told reporters that his squadron was "still searching".
"I've got a lot of hope and if the conditions remain as they are, hopefully we'll find something soon."
Hopes have been riding high with the announcement in Perth Friday morning that the Xue Long (Snow Dragon), the Chinese ice-breaker, will join the search.
The Snow Dragon has been refitting in Perth and is now taking on fuel to prepare for a 20-day search mission.
Earlier Friday, Australian maritime authorities said that the search in the southern Indian Ocean for the missing airliner might last several days due to bad weather.
Andrea Hayward-Maher, media liaison officer of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), said that bad weather continued to affect visibility in the search area to locate debris that might be linked to the missing jet.
"It is a large area and the weather is difficult (to search)," Hayward-Maher said.
The search zone now covers 23,000 square km.
Air Commodore John McGarry said at a press conference Thursday that it would take four hours for the aircraft to arrive in the area from RAAF Base Pearce near Perth.
One merchant vessel is currently in the search area. A second merchant vessel is due to arrive Friday night.
According to a report from Beijing, more Chinese vessels will set out for the southern Indian Ocean to join the multinational search operation.
Chinese rescue vessels Haixun 01 and Nanhaijiu 101 will sail to the search area.
Haixun 31 and Nanhaijiu 115 will also head for the southern Indian Ocean even as three more Chinese naval ships have already moved toward the suspected waters.
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