If debris is from Flight 370, long search remains
Trefor Moss
TreforMoss
Even if the objects that satellite images show floating in the southern Indian Ocean turn out to be connected to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, actually finding the Boeing 777 could still be months off. Just getting the required robotic submersibles to the site would take a month, and once they arrive it could be one to six months before they find the missing airliner, says David G. Gallo, director of special projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Still, he expressed confidence that undersea-exploration specialists would succeed. The remote area of the southern Indian Ocean where Australian-led search operations are focused lies above part of the Southeast India Ridge, which runs east-west and slopes away from a peak roughly 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) under the surface to a depth of some 4,000 meters (13,000 feet). The terrain is relatively easy to survey by deep-sea standards, Mr. Gallo said--easier, for example, than the area beneath the south Atlantic Ocean where experts from Woods Hole helped locate Air France Flight 447 after it crashed in 2009. "This would not really be as big a challenge as with Air France 447, which went down in much more ridged terrain," he explained. "This is more gently sloping." When debris is found, oceanographers are able to use mathematical models to calculate where an aircraft originally entered the water, Mr. Gallo said. They then either deploy robotic submersibles equipped with sonar to scan the sea floor--three were used to find Air France 447--or use high-resolution cameras to build up a detailed picture of the area. He said this technology could find the aircraft even if the plane's "black box"--a unit containing digital flight data and recordings of cockpit conversations, designed to withstand a crash--is no longer sending out signals. (In any case, its "pings" are often difficult to detect in deep water, Mr. Gallo added.) Still, the operation would not be "routine," Mr. Gallo cautioned. "There's very few pieces of equipment in the world that can do this," he said, adding that he is "imploring" relevant authorities to start planning for an undersea search now, given how long the process would take. Subscribe to WSJ: