Australia to deploy flying air traffic controller
Source: AP-Excite
By ROB GRIFFITH and ROD McGUIRK
PERTH, Australia (AP) - Australia deployed Tuesday an airborne traffic controller over the Indian Ocean to prevent a mid-air collision among the many aircraft searching for the Malaysia Airlines jetliner that went missing over three weeks ago.
An air force E-7A Wedgetail equipped with advanced radar "is on its first operational" task in the search area in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a tweet. Earlier, Angus Houston, who heads the joint agency coordinating the multinational search effort, said the modified Boeing 737 will monitor the increasingly crowded skies over the remote search zone.
The three-week hunt for Flight 370 has turned up no sign of the Boeing 777, which vanished March 8 with 239 people on board bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia has been criticized for its handling of the search, particularly its communications to the media and families of the passengers. In something likely to fuel those concerns, the government changed its account of the final voice transmission from the cockpit.
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Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3 Orion's captain, Wing Comdr. Rob Shearer watches out of the window of his aircraft while searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, Monday, March 31, 2014. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, Pool)