China not paying its share of sea search

AUSTRALIA has attacked China for refusing to contribute any resources to the hunt for Flight MH370, even though the majority of the 227 passengers on board were Chinese.

Canberra has stumped up the overwhelming majority of the A$152 million (NZ$170m) cost of the Indian Ocean search for remains of the lost Boeing 777 aircraft, which are believed to be lying up to 6km beneath the ocean some 1700km west of Australia.

Another 60,000 sq km of sea floor is yet to be searched by vessels towing sophisticated sonar search devices.

China, however, has refused to pay anything, while Malaysia – the operator of MH370 – has contributed between A$42 million and A$63m, despite a pledge from Kuala Lumpur to pay half the costs.

‘‘China has not contributed resources or equipment to the underwater search. China had been asked to contribute equally to the search with Malaysia and Australia,’’ said a spokesman for Warren Truss, Australia’s transport minister.

Of the 227 passengers who were aboard MH370 when it vanished in March last year, 153 were Chinese nationals. There were 38 Malaysians and only six Australians.

MH370 disappeared from radar screens as it travelled between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing.

When it became clear to investigators that it most likely went down in the Indian Ocean, Australia had the responsibility under international agreements to lead the initial search and rescue operation because the crash site was most probably within Australia’s vast maritime search and rescue zone.

One theory for the aircraft’s crash is that the pilot and assistant became incapacitated, perhaps because of a failure in the oxygen supply, and the aircraft flew on for several hours before running out of fuel and plunging into the ocean.