In the context of the MH370 event I would imagine authorities would have been inundated with every piece that the beachcombers/general public couldn't positively identify as NOT being related to MH370!

Not likely, even south of Mandurah I would be surprised, let alone going up past Yanchep, virtually no hope.

Again, not likely, for general Jo public unless its obvious, its MH370 what? More than a week after the event they have lost interest.

This coastline is so empty that there are no signs of human habitation for hundreds of miles - flotsam on the beach dates from WWII and earlier. Look at google earth and google maps and compare to the US coastline

No trace was ever found of the Varig 707 in 1979 or missing/stolen 727 in 2003, so why should this be any different?

Both of those aforementioned weren't far from land as well!

Only 26% of the area searched so far, hope something is found!

NTSB statement 22JAN 2015
 

NTSB Calls for Better Ways to Find Aircraft Accident Sites and Retrieve Critical Flight Data

January 22, 2015

WASHINGTON - The National Transportation Safety Board today issued a series of safety recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration calling for improvements in locating downed aircraft and ways to obtain critical flight data faster and without the need for immediate underwater retrieval. The Board also re-emphasized the need for cockpit image recorders on commercial airplanes.

Recent accidents have pointed to the need for improved technologies to locate aircraft wreckage and flight recorders lost in remote locations or over water. In the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447, it took almost two years and $40 million to find the recorders. Investigators are still searching for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. So far the search has involved 26 countries using 84 vessels and numerous aircraft.

“Technology has reached a point where we shouldn’t have to search hundreds of miles of ocean floor in a frantic race to find these valuable boxes,’’ said NTSB Acting Chairman Christopher A. Hart. “In this day and age, lost aircraft should be a thing of the past.”

Last October, the NTSB held a forum, Emerging Flight Data and Locator Technology, which explored these issues in detail.

Among the recommendations to the FAA are to equip commercial airplanes with a tamper-resistant method to broadcast to a ground station sufficient information to establish the location where an aircraft terminates flight as a result of an accident within six nautical miles of the point of impact.

The NTSB also called for the FAA to coordinate with other regulatory authorities and the International Civil Aviation Organization to harmonize implementation of several of these recommendations.

The NTSB also repeated recommendations for a crash-protected image recording system that would record the cockpit environment during the last two hours of a flight.

A link to the recommendation letter can be found here: go.usa.gov/Jsaz

A link to the recorder forum page is here: go.usa.gov/JsCW

Finding debris
 

As stated, the Western Australian coast is sparsely populated and with large sections that are infrequently accessed, if at all.
Increasingly so the farther north you go, as was predicted for any debris from MH370.
As much as we might like to think, the coast is not all white, sandy beaches either.
There are long (read as 100's of km) of high inaccessible cliffs against which debris would likely be beaten to smithereens.
Not to mention long sections of mangrove forest that would simply swallow debris coming its way and into which people seldom enter.
And north of Yampi Sound the coast (read as 1000's of km) is rugged, hostile and general never accessed, certainly not in terms of "going close enough to identify debris".
It is very possible the debris might be found, but it is at least as possible that it might not

Having recently spent some time in the area around Dampier, and further south, it is not difficult to understand at all. This is Mars, with an occasional structure and a breathable atmosphere. Someone might find a bit of something in a few years' time ....

Tenders called for raising MH370
 

just completed another search run at 600ft along the beaches south of Perth past Bunbiry, Busselton, Dunsborough, Cape Naturalist and down almost to the Leeuwin lighthouse.
there is absolutely no hint of wreckage or flotsam of any kind washing up.

the beaches are amazing. there are people everywhere on the beaches.
between perth and bunbury there would be a vehicle camped/parked about every 400 yards along the beach.
between bunbury and cape naturalist there are people walking and swimming on every beach.
south of cape naturalist there is about 1km of deserted beach. south of there there are people and surfers everywhere.
so the likelihood of anything washing up on the beaches and remaining there unnoticed is I think absolutely nil. I think if anything washed up it would be noticed within half a day.

Malaysia to release Interim Report 6 March 2015
 

Press conference was due to start about 45 minutes ago. Once relatives had gathered (after hearing about press conference via the media), conference was cancelled due to "unforeseen circumstances".

:ugh:

BBC: BBC News - Malaysia declares MH370 an accident

The link stating search "0fficially ended" above actually says the search is ongoing.

Edit: Link now removed

Search
 

I was watching it live on News 24 in OZ.

The search is ongoing and they believe they are still in the correct area, they only officially announced it as an accident so next of kin can claim compensation.

Yes they are so concerned of the next of kin that's why the families were never approached before the announcement to the rest of the world.

How do they normally approach the next of kin without telling the whole world? Do they send out emails or make lots of phone calls?

Possible work through the Embassy/Foriegn Affairs departments of the victims countries , wait two weeks and announce. It would never be perfect but the effort could be made.

Flight Tracker from Aireon.
 

From AvWeb:
Beginning in 2017 any aircraft, GA included, with ADS-B out transmitting at 1090 MHz will be automatically tracked and the precise location of its last transmission anywhere on earth recorded. At last week's ICAO High Level Safety Conference, Aireon LLC, which is launching the first space based global air surveillance system, announced that the headquarters for its Aircraft Locating and Emergency Response Tracking (Aireon Alert) will be at the Irish Aviation Authority's North Atlantic operations center in Ballygirreen on the west coast of Ireland. Once the Iridium constellation of satellites carrying the ADS-B receivers is complete, any airline, search and rescue organization or any other group needing "last known" information on a flight can get it for free from Aireon. VP of marketing Cyriel Kronenburg told AVweb it will work for all aircraft equipped with 1090 MHz ADS-B and the mystery of Malaysian MH370, a Boeing 777 which hasn't been found since it disappeared a year ago, prompted the ALERT service.

Isn't ADS-B out linked to transponder operation? MH370s transponder was not transmitting from the earliest stage of its loss. So this new service would have been of no use even if it had been operational.

Andrew, the point you raise became evident early in this investigation of this lost hull. What is interesting is how the various "solution" presenters seem to have overlooked that point.
Not enough people seem to have watched the Monty Python "I'm Trying Not to be Seen" sketch.