搜寻MH370航班费用将达史上最高

搜寻MH370航班费用将达史上最高

Hunt for flight MH370 to be most expensive in history, say Chinese scientists

A Chinese IL-76 aircraft prepares to take off to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 at Perth International Airport on March. Photo: Xinhua

The hunt for doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is likely to be the most expensive in aviation history, Chinese scientists warned yesterday, as Thailand said it had spotted hundreds of objects near the search area in the Indian Ocean.

The annual bill could run to 10 times that of the two-year hunt for an Air France plane five years ago and would cost hundreds of millions of US dollars, they said.

France and Brazil spent more than US$40 million over two years to recover the black boxes from Air France flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 en route to Rio de Janeiro from Paris. Officials halted the operation, which used underwater robots to scour the seabed, after search crews found 50 of the 228 bodies.

But Zhao Chaofang , an oceanographer at the Ocean University of China in Qingdao , estimated that the cost of finding MH370 could total more than 10 times that of the Air France search annually.

US$200 million per year is barely enough to maintain the effort
ZHAO CHAOFANG, OCEANOGRAPHER
Some scientists believe China alone has already spent hundreds of millions of yuan, he added. "If the operation is stretched to a long-term search for years, US$200 million per year is barely enough to maintain the multinational effort," Zhao said.

A senior researcher at the Civil Aviation University of China, who declined to be named, agreed the cost would "far, far exceed" that of the Air France search. Experts said it was unclear who might ultimately foot the cost of finding MH370.

But Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's acting transport minister, has stressed that the country had not discussed the issue with other nations.

An undated image taken by a Thai satellite showing potential objects floating near the search area for the missing plane. Photo: EPA

"Nobody, not the Malaysian government, none of our partners, have talked about dollars and cents," he said. "It's all about trying to find the aircraft. It did not even cross our minds."

Thailand said a satellite pinpointed about 300 objects near where planes and ships have been hunting for debris from MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, where it crashed on March 8 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.

But storms caused Australia to pull back all planes due to continue the search yesterday.

No international protocol exists to assign or split accident investigation costs. Oh Ei Sun, of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said that in theory, the lead investigating nation should pay.

But in practice, participating nations usually helped with the costs to show goodwill.

Crews from 27 nations, including Malaysia, have mobilised resources and contributed to the search for the plane, Malaysian officials said.

China has 10 ships on the mission, Australia five, Malaysia six, and there is one from the UK. Each of these ships burns at least 1,000 yuan (HK$1,260) of fuel per hour, Zhao said.

The cost of the deployment of satellites will also add up. China has used more than 20 satellites, Zhao said. Each of these satellites cost about 400 million yuan, with an average life span of about four years, potentially costing one billion yuan already, he said.

Additional reporting by Ernest Kao, Teddy Ng, Danny Lee, Associated Press

中国一架伊尔76飞机准备从珀斯国际机场起飞参加马航MH370航班的搜寻工作。图片：新华社

据《南华早报》3月27日报道，泰国发布消息称其在印度洋搜寻区域附近发现逾百件疑似物体。之后，中国科学家于昨日警告称，对马航MH370航班的搜寻很可能成为航空史上最昂贵的一次搜寻。

他们表示，此次搜寻的年花费将达到数亿美元，这是五年前进行的为期两年的法航失事航班搜寻的十倍。

2009年，法航447航班在从巴黎飞往里约热内卢的途中坠毁于大西洋。法国和巴西花了两年多的时间，花费了超过四千万美元对该航班的黑匣子进行搜寻。在搜救人员找到了228名乘客遗体中的50个后，官方终止了使用水下机器人对海底进行搜索的行动。

但据中国海洋大学海洋学家赵朝方预测，搜寻MH370航班的花费将是搜寻法航航班的十倍。

一些科学家称，中国一个国家就已经在这次搜寻上花费了上亿元人民币。赵朝方还说：“如果这变成一个持续数年的长期行动，那每年两亿美元的花费都都很难维持这样的跨国行动。”

一位拒绝透露姓名的中国民航大学的高级研究员同意搜寻马航的费用将远远超过搜寻法航的费用这一观点。专家称现在还不能确定谁可能会最终成为搜寻马航所花费用的承担者。

但马来西亚代理交通部长希沙姆丁强调，马来西亚还未与其他国家讨论这个问题。

泰国卫星所拍摄的未注明日期的照片显示，失联客机疑似物体在搜寻区域附近漂浮。图片：EPA

希沙姆丁说：“无论是马来西亚政府还是我们的同伴，都没有人谈论到钱的问题。我们甚至从未想过关于金钱的问题。现在我们只是想倾尽全力找到客机。”

泰国表示，3月8日，马航MH370航班在从吉隆坡起飞飞往北京的途中坠毁，许多飞机和船只在南印度洋海域搜寻飞机残害。一颗卫星发现，在这个区域附近，存在300个左右的物体。

但由于风暴，澳大利亚不得不撤回了原本计划于昨日（3月27日）继续进行搜寻的飞机。

目前没有任何国际协定涉及到关于事故调查过程中费用的分配问题。新加坡拉惹勒南国际研究院的胡逸山表示，理论上，调查的领导国应承担这笔费用。

但在实践中，参与国通常会帮助分担一部分费用以表示善意友好。

马来西亚官员称，包括马来西亚在内的来自27个国家的人员，动用种种资源为搜寻马航航班做出了贡献。

中国有10艘船只在执行任务，澳大利亚5艘，马来西亚6艘，英国1艘。赵朝方表示，这里的每艘船只平均每小时要烧掉至少1000元人民币的汽油。

使用卫星的费用也会增加。赵朝方称，中国已经有20多颗卫星投入使用。这些卫星每颗的成本为4亿元人民币，平均寿命为4年。卫星的使用可能已经花费了10亿元人民币。

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