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Old 25th Apr 2014, 00:26
  #10145 (permalink)  
Vinnie Boombatz
 
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US Department of Defense Update

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=122122

"WASHINGTON, April 24, 2014 – The Defense Department is continuing to support the international search mission for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said today.

The total cost of the search to date is $11.4 million, Warren said. This figure includes $4,200 per flight hour for the two P-8 Poseidon aircraft involved in the search, he added. The plane and its 239 passengers disappeared March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

The costs break down as follows, Warren said:

-- $4.6 million in operations and maintenance funds;

-- $3.2 million in overseas humanitarian disaster and civic aid funds; and

-- $3.6 million for underwater search equipment and support.

The P-8s continue conducting aerial search operations, and the Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle completed its twelfth search mission, the colonel said.

'Bluefin-21 has now completed more than 90 percent of a focused underwater search ... . Unfortunately, no contacts of interest have been found,' he said.

The department has received no requests for additional underwater search assets, Warren said."

The last sentence probably means that the US DOD doesn't have any other underwater search assets that would be useful in this search.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, which provided such assets for AF 447 search, has US Navy affiliations, but is not formally part of the defense establishment.

Some WHOI comments on this search:

FAQ: Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 : Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

WHOI assets:

Underwater Vehicles : Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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