MH370, Misi Pencarian Butuh Waktu Bertahun-tahun
US Official Says MH370 Search Likely to Last for Years
Editor : Cahyani Harzi
Translator : Dhelia Gani
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Sidney (B2B) - Pencarian pesawat hilang Malaysia Airlines MH370 akan memakan waktu bertahun-tahun, kata seorang pejabat senior pertahanan AS, di tengah pencarian bawah laut atas pesawat itu di sebelah barat Australia gagal mendapatkan satu pun bukti puing MH370.
Pejabat yang menolak menyebutkan namanya karena tidak berwenang mengeluarkan komentar mengenai upaya pencarian MH370 tersebut mengatakan dua pekan menyisir dasar Samudera Hindia dengan kapal selam tak berawak milik Angkatan Laut AS tak menemukan puing pesawat hilang tersebut, seperti dilansir Yahoo News.
Dia mengatakan pencarian pesawat yang hilang sejak 8 Maret lalu dengan membawa 239 orang di dalamnya itu kini memasuki fase yang jauh lebih sulit di area pencarian yang diyakini pesawat itu jatuh.
"Kami sudah menelusuri semua area kecil ini dan tidak menemukan apa-apa. Kini kita mesti kembali ke wilayah yang besar," kata sang pejabat kepada Reuters.
"Dan kini kita berbicara soal tahunan (mencari pesawat hilang itu)," tegas dia.
Kapal selam tak berawak Bluefin-21 akan menyelesaikan tugas terakhirnya Jumat ini setelah 16 hari menyusuri kedalaman lautan lebih dari 4,5 km dan mencari di area seluas 10 km persegi yang jaraknya 3.200 km arah barat daya kota Perth di Australia.
Pejabat AS itu mengatakan Malaysia kini haru memutuskan bagaimana pencarian diteruskan, termasuk apakah perlu melibatkan lebih banyak lagi robot bawah laut, dengan asumsi pencarian akan membutuhkan waktu bertahun-tahun.
Sidney - The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is likely to drag on for years, a senior US defence official said today, as an underwater search for any trace of the plane’s wreckage off west Australia appeared to have failed.
The official, who declined to be identified because he is not authorised to comment on the search effort, said two weeks of scouring the Indian Ocean floor with a US Navy submersible drone had turned up nothing.
He said the search for the jetliner, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, would now enter a much harder phase of scouring broader areas of the ocean near where the plane is believed to have crashed.
“We went all in on this small area and didn’t find anything. Now you’ve got to go back to the big area,” the official told Reuters.
“And now you’re talking years.”
The undersea drone Bluefin-21 is expected today to finish what may be the last of its 16-hour trips to depths of more than 4.5km (2.8 miles), searching a 10 square km (6.2 square mile) patch of seabed about 3,200km (2,000 miles) northwest of the Australian city of Perth.
But the US official said Malaysia would now have to decide how to proceed, including whether to bring in more underwater drones, even with the understanding that the search could continue for years without a refined search area.
