KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 — The cost to search for Malaysia Airlines MH370 is already the most expensive search and rescue operation ever conducted, exceeding even the nearly two-year hunt for Air France flight AF447.
Using partial estimates by Australian firm Fairfax Media, the Sydney Morning Herald reported the combined cost of the resources deployed by over two dozen nations in the so-far fruitless hunt for the flight that went missing on March 8 with 239 on board may already have topped the US$50 million (RM163 million) spent to find AF447 from 2009 to 2011.
Search for the missing plane has involved — at one time or another — satellites, advanced maritime reconnaissance planes as well as other aircraft, naval ships, submarines and assorted submersibles as well as a towed pinger locator to help locate emergency beacons from the “black boxes”.
While complete figures were not available, Fairfax Media made its calculations using partial figures provided by some countries — primarily Australia — for the assets used.
These include the AUS$10 million (RM30 million) spent on two Australian warships, the US$3.6 million for US ships and planes, and the nearly US$9 million spent by Vietnam who scoured the South China Sea during the first weeks of the plane’s disappearance.
Geoff Dell, an Australian air crash investigation expert, told the SMH that the estimated cost to keep the tens of planes and helicopters in the air to look for MH370 could be around AUS$1 million for each of the 25 days that the plane has been missing.
With just another five more days before the locator beacons on the so-called “black boxes” — the flight data and cockpit voice recorders — run out of power, the already “unprecedented” search could become exponentially more difficult and expensive.
Malaysia has deployed six ships, three helicopters, and two aircraft in the hunt, according to information issued by Australia’s Maritime Authority (AMSA).
China has sent 10 ships, three airplanes, and three helicopters.
Australia has contributed five ships of its own, including the HMAS Success and HMAS Toowoomba.
The United Kingdom has dispatched the HMS Echo, a specialised survey vessel, to help search the sea almost 1,600 miles southwest of Perth.
India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates have all sent aircraft to help.
Meanwhile the US, which budgeted US$4 million for the search, have sent two warships, two state of the art surveillance Poseidon aircraft, a Bluefin 21 an underwater surveillance drone, and the towed pinger locator.
France spent a total of US$50 million between June 2009 and May 2011 to locate the main wreckage of AF447 that crashed during its flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris.
MH370 went missing shortly after departing Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Beijing on March 8 and remains missing despite an international search involving over two dozen countries.
Search is now concentrated in an area 2,000km west of Perth, Australia where a race against time is currently on to locate the plane’s “black boxes” before their transmitter beacons run out of power around April 8.
