MH370 hunt costliest in aviation history

SYDNEY: The hunt for MH370 is on track to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, becoming the most expensive search in aviation history with 26 countries contributing planes, ships, submarines and satellites to the international effort.
A month into the search for the jet, estimates compiled by media agencies show that at least US$44 million (about RM135 million) has already been spent on the deployment of military ships and aircraft in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea by Australia, China, the United States and Vietnam.
The figure is based on defence force statistics on available hourly costs of various assets, estimates by defence analysts and costs reported by the Pentagon.
The figure for the first month of the search is already about equal to the official €32 million (US$44 million) spent in searches lasting several months over a two-year period for Air France's Flight AF447, which crashed into the mid-Atlantic in 2009.
Just as salvage experts said the actual costs for the Air France operation could have been three or four times higher than the official figure, the bill for the current search is expected to run into hundreds of millions of dollars.
Angus Houston, the retired air chief marshal in charge of the Australian-led international search, said on Friday he would give an overall estimate of the cost at a later date.
"It's a lot of money," he said. – AFP