Blaine Gibson - the MH370 searcher

[Phoenix1969]

AFAIK, this hasn't been posted already - MH370: Blaine Gibson's one-man search for answers - BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36498547)

If you are wondering, as I have been, why so many pieces seem to have been found by the same person then have a read of this touching article about one man's dedication.

[onetrack]

If the authorities and powers-that-be, had put up a modest reward for finding and handing in any wreckage found floating in the Indian Ocean - and put the word out amongst all the tribal and poor fishing and coastal folk around the Indian Ocean rim - then we would probably have had more wreckage found earlier, at much less cost than the completely fruitless ATSB search.

The interesting part now is, whether the aircraft wreckage small part found on the shores of Kangaroo Island in South Australia also comes from MH370 - or came from a Cessna that crashed off KI.

The one photo I sighted of the KI wreckage showed a honeycomb style construction and certainly appeared to much more likely be from a B777 rather than a Cessna.

If the KI wreckage item is shown to be almost certainly from MH370, it then throws more weight on the theory that MH370 crashed further South, thus enabling the wreckage to be picked up by the Antarctic Circumpolar current.

[G-CPTN]

MH370 search: Photos of possible personal items released (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36571822).

[MrSnuggles]

Just read about Blaine. Can't we crowdfund him?

[onetrack]

Whilst I admire Blaine Gibsons efforts at finding important and telling washed-up wreckage from MH370 to try and give some comfort to those seeking answers - I can cheerfully advise him, that he will continue to find vast amounts of personal items, wreckage and flotsam and jetsam around the shores of any country or island between Madagascar and Malaysia - that has no relevance whatsoever to MH370.

The simple reason for this is - the Indian Ocean in these regions is nothing but a huge rubbish dump for the SE Asian nations whose shorelines border this ocean, and whose marine-based population utilise the ocean for travel and fishing purposes.

Add in the number of Tsunamis in recent years in the region - and the amount of material dumped in the Indian Ocean by them - and he will begin to understand he has a vast amount of pure ocean rubbish to sort through, before he may perhaps, find one item that actually does come from MH370.

In other words, don't get too excited about what he finds, by way of personal effects washed up on the shores that he is trawling.

[Phoenix1969]

In other words, don't get too excited about what he finds, by way of personal effects washed up on the shores that he is trawling.

Maybe, but if one of the family members DOES recognise something then it might, in theory, give some degree of closure. And if a personal effect IS positively identified as belonging to one of those on board then perhaps it would yield some forensic evidence.

I don't know how I'd feel, really, if it was one of my relatives on that flight and I saw a picture of something unique that belonged to them, found on one of those beaches. Especially in these very weird circumstances.

[onetrack]

I don't know how I'd feel, really, if it was one of my relatives on that flight and I saw a picture of something unique that belonged to them, found on one of those beaches. Especially in these very weird circumstances.Well, I'd imagine you'd feel deeply saddened - and any slight hope you held that that person had somehow survived (and some relatives of the MH370 pax more than likely still cling to this hope) - would be totally dashed, and the grim truth that the person you knew and loved is gone forever, would be be driven home to you.

Blaine Gibson is faced with a monumental task - and to accurately identify any personal items washed up on the shores he's searching, as belonging to a passenger or crewmember of MH370, he would have to find concrete evidence on the item that it belonged to someone on that flight - such as a indelible name tag, a serial number, or some other traceable ID that would identify it with 100% certainty, as coming from an MH370 passenger or crewmember.

To just produce an Angry Birds backpack and have a relative say, "Oooh, yes, my relation on that flight owned one exactly like that!", is only misleading and speculative fuel for the media to feast on - with no verification whatsoever, that the find did belong to any particular MH370 victim.

There are tens of millions of items of personal consumer items produced annually, they all look the same, and the Indian Ocean is littered with them.

I stayed on the Cocos-Keeling Islands last July for 3 weeks, and spent some time beachcombing, in the very faint hope of perhaps finding some MH370 wreckage - and I was appalled at the vast amounts of Ocean-borne rubbish littering the shores of these otherwise pristine islands.

The amount of consumer rubbish on those shores was truly overwhelming, and it left me saddened that the Ocean that forms the Westernmost border of my home State - that I thought, was still relatively pristine - definitely isn't - and it carries as much ocean-going discarded consumer rubbish as any of the other large oceans in the world - not the least of which, is due in part, to the huge and careless populations of SE Asia, who continue to treat the oceans as a rubbish dump.

[Load Toad]

Say whatever you want about Mr Blaine but he's found a hell of a lot more from MH370 than anyone else has, any of the authorities....