Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-04-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what level of assistance has been offered by UK personnel in efforts to locate the missing Malaysian airliner MH370.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The search for the missing Malaysian Airliner MH370 is an extremely difficult and complex operation. The UK has made a number of contributions to the investigation and search for MH370. The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch has appointed an accredited representative and an advisor to assist in the investigation, and representatives from Rolls Royce and Inmarsat also provided initial support. Experts from the UK Ministry of Defence, the Hydrographic Office, and the Met Office, have also co-operated with Malaysia and other international partners to analyse available data to help locate the aircraft.

In addition, the UK deployed submarine HMS Tireless and survey vessel HMS Echo to support the search effort for a signal from MH370’s black box. With the Australian command assessing that there is no prospect of further acoustic detections associated with the aircraft’s black box, HMS Tireless and HMS Echo have been stood down. RAF personnel have also participated in Royal Australian Air Force and Royal New Zealand Air Force operations to search for wreckage of MH370.

The Air Accidents Investigations Branch, working as part of an international team, continues to give its full support to the investigation and to share its expertise and analysis with the Malaysian authorities and international partners.