Offshore Search News

The full investigation report into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will be released after the latest search efforts are completed, officials said on Thursday, four years after the aircraft first went missing. Flight MH370, carrying 239 people onboard, became one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries when it disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Malaysia agreed in January to pay U.S. firm Ocean Infinity up to $70 million if it found the plane during an offshore search effort that is underway and expected to end in June.

The world is changing fast and this is especially true in the fast boat sector. Since the millennium, rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) and high speed craft (HSC) have been at the cutting edge of maritime operations for everything from homeland security and law enforcement to extreme weather rescue. For over 30 years specialist organizations around the world including the RNLI (UK lifeboat), Royal Marines, US Navy and US Coast Guard have driven the evolution of fast craft. They know what has worked in the past and know what boats they want for the future.

Coast Guard watchstanders received notification from crew aboard the sailing vessel Avenir that they were disabled, adrift and had crewmembers needing medevacs, adding that they had lost their rudder and two of the six crewmembers showed symptoms of dehydration and seasickness. The Coast Guard sent out an enhanced group call and used AMVER, the Automated mutual-assistance vessel rescue system to contact vessels in the area. The cruise ship Norwegian Star responded to the request for assistance and altered course to intercept the disabled yacht, and later successfully took the crew off.

Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding, Duclos Corporation, has taken a new boat order from the Bermuda Department of Marine and Ports Services to replace the pilot/rescue boat, Saint David, built by the shipyard in 1986. Delivery is scheduled for 2011. Designed by C. Raymond Hunt Associates and classed to Lloyds Register, the high-speed, all-aluminum pilot/rescue boat measures 61 ft over-all, with an 18-ft beam and a 6-ft draft. Designed and built to serve as a pilot boat, the vessel will be equipped for offshore search and rescue missions as well, with a rescue well recessed into the transom, a tow bitt and 12-ft inflatable tender, and  accommodations for a stokes litter basket stretcher.

Operational by 2010, the new system will mean rescue vessels will be able to reach any spot within 50 nautical miles of the coast in two and a half hours, cutting reaction time by an hour from present. Helicopters will be able to search for and rescue targets at night, expanding the offshore search radius from 110 to 260 nautical miles. Also, rescuers will be able to salvage ships weighing 50,000 tons. The bureau revealed the measures, to be taken in its 11th Five Year plan (2006-10), at a press conference yesterday in Beijing to mark the 55th anniversary of its establishment. According to the plan, new rescue vessels will be purchased to build a fleet of 56 rescue tugboats with different sizes and functions.

The China Rescue and Salvage Bureau announced plans to update its offshore rescue system. Operational by 2010, the new system will mean rescue vessels will be able to reach any spot within 50 nautical miles (92.6 kilometres) of the coast in two and a half hours, cutting reaction time by an hour from present. Helicopters will be able to search for and rescue targets at night, expanding the offshore search radius from 110 to 260 nautical miles (204 to 482 kilometres). The bureau revealed the measures, to be taken in its 11th Five Year plan (2006-10), at a press conference in Beijing to mark the 55th anniversary of its establishment. According to the plan, new rescue vessels will be purchased to build a fleet of 56 rescue tugboats with different sizes and functions.

A major offshore search for oil and gas is now underway in the Solander Basin, southwest of Invercargill. Christchurch-based L & M Petroleum recently began a 1,000km offshore seismic survey in what is the biggest exploration in the region for two decades, and the company says preliminary results are promising. L & M Group says four large prospects and numerous leads have been identified and the current survey has been designed to enhance some of the larger targets prior to drilling. L & M also holds onshore Petroleum Exploration Permits covering the Waiau and Te Anau Basins where two drilling programs will be ready for testing within weeks. (Source: Newswire.co.nz)

Coast Guard Group Miami has introduced its newest asset to the Coast Guard's multi-mission resources. Station Miami Beach's new 47-ft. motor life boat gives it a technological boost that will drastically increase the stations capabilities. The increased capabilities of the 47-ft. MLB will improve the station's effectiveness across the spectrum of its missions including homeland security, search and rescue, counter-narcotics and alien-migrant interdiction. "This vessel has a lot more capabilities than anything previously in the station's inventory. It will provide a more suitable platform of offshore search and rescue missions and homeland security missions," said Capt. Mark Kerski, Commander, Group Miami.