MH370 Search Update: Lead Agency Admits Capacity Is Less Than Before
By Athena Yenko| November 4, 2014 9:06 PM EST
The Australian Transport and Safety Bureau or ATSB made the difficult decision to cut its staff by 12 percent within the next four years. With this, the agency leading the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 admits its capacity is less than before in all teams involved with investigation, technical analysis, research and publication. The revelation came as the agency release its annual report for 2013-2014.
Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan said the decision came in light when their planning of the next four years showed the agency would not be able to sustain the current number of staff it has for the next years. With the decision, the agency is forced to marry various functions under one job function, such as research and notifications.
Dolan highlighted the decision to cut staff was being made about the same time the news of the disappearance of MH370 broke. He said that as the agency was being required to reduce the number of its staff and resources, ATSB had also received the news that the missing Boeing 777 could possibly be in the Southern Indian Ocean, in Australia's Search and Rescue Zone. The agency was thereby delegated the responsibility to take the lead in searching for the missing plane.
Under this circumstance, ATSB's responsibility as the lead agency searching for the missing plane became its greatest challenge to date. With a limited staff in the coming years, the already "most serious aviation occurrence ever" that landed on ATSB's responsibility became all the more challenging. As how the global community describes it, the mystery surrounding the missing plane is the most mystifying, most expansive and most difficult search operation in the history of commercial aircraft.
In July, the agency subsequently received the news about the downing of MH17, claiming the lives of many Australians. The agency had then deployed two of its investigators to support the investigations of the Dutch Safety Board-led Annex 13.
"The decision to reduce our staff members was particularly difficult as it was made in the knowledge that there is no contingent workforce of highly skilled transport safety investigators available in the marketplace to be deployed at short notice in the event of a new crisis," Dolan stated.
"It was indeed sobering to see more than 200 years of combined corporate and investigation experience leaving the ATSB," Dolan emotionally said.
To contact the editor, e-mail:
[email protected]