Kuala lumpur, March 25 – The search for missing flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean has been suspended due to bad weather and rough seas, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said Tuesday.
It said the area was expected to experience waves of up to two metres and an associated swell of up to four metres, strong gale force winds of up to 80km per hour, periods of heavy rain, and low cloud with a ceiling between 60 and 150 metres.
“AMSA has undertaken a risk assessment and determined that the weather conditions would make any air and sea search activities hazardous and pose a risk to crew. Therefore, AMSA has suspended all sea and air search operations for today due to these weather conditions,” it said in a statement.
It said according to the Bureau of Meteorology, the weather conditions in the search area were expected to improve in the evening and over the next few days. Search operations are expected to resume Wednesday, if weather conditions permit.
It said due to rough seas, HMAS Success departed the search area early Tuesday morning and was now in transit south of the search area until seas abate.
HMAS Success will return to the search area once weather conditions improve.
Monday night HMAS Success attempted to locate objects sighted by a RAAF P3 Orion aircraft, but was unable to do so.
Monday night, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that based on new analysis by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and satellite company Inmarsat,
the Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 239 people on board had ended in the southern Indian Ocean. The Beijing-bound flight went missing on March 8.
-BERNAMA
