Inside the RAAF: The cruel sea

At the time of writing, no such ‘closure’ is in prospect for the families of those lost on MH370, whose final resting place is unknown, despite a massive, multi-national search effort.

To understand the scope of that exercise, Australian Aviation recently spoke with AIRCDRE (then GPCAPT) Craig Heap, the commander of the military air assets assigned to locate MH370 when the search for the missing airliner was moved to the southern Indian Ocean, roughly 2,400km south-west of Perth.

One of our aircraft is missing

On March 8, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, operated by Boeing 777‑2H6ER 9M-MRO, departed Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing. Forty minutes later, after being instructed to contact Vietnamese ATC, radio contact with the aircraft was lost and shortly thereafter, its onboard transponder stopped transmitting. Later satellite data revealed the aircraft then tracked west, back over the Malaysian mainland, over the Straits of Malacca, before then heading south where eventual fuel starvation saw it crash in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Initially believed to have perished in the South China Sea, early search efforts fell to Vietnam before the size of the task, and the search area, was dramatically rescaled. At the request of the Malaysian government, Australia was asked to undertake a search of a 60,000 km2 arc, extending along a north-easterly, south-west axis off the
Western Australian coast.

While Australia had immediately dispatched Orions to Malaysia to help the MH370 search, the revised search area saw these aircraft redeploy via Cocos Island to RAAF Pearce, which became the primary staging point for aircraft engaged in locating the missing 777. Scouring such an immense area for wreckage called for a co-ordinated,
multi-agency air and sea operation of the type and size theretofore never mounted by Australia.

Commenced at very short notice, Operation Southern Indian Ocean, as it was called, harnessed the air and sea assets of seven nations which battled mountainous seas, tyrannical distance and language barriers in a search effort that was conducted without a serious safety incident. However, to the great regret of search personnel, grieving families and the world at large, no debris from MH370 was located.

Air Task Group

Then Officer Commanding 92WG, GPCAPT Craig Heap was on leave when asked to head the Air Task Group (AIRTG) on the March 21, 13 days after the disappearance of
MH370. The AIRTG would assume operational control of all military air assets, including the international contributions arriving in numbers at RAAF Pearce and Perth Airport.

AIRCDRE Heap recalls the formation of the Group and how the operation evolved.

“Two aircraft were launched from Darwin and went north to Malaysia where they conducted searches almost immediately, predominantly west of the peninsula. They searched for about a week, then the scenario changed with the likely area that the aircraft was missing in was now the southern Indian Ocean. My 92WG chief of operations, WGCDR Commander Parton went over (to Perth) on the 17th to assume initial command and receive a number of international aircraft that were coming in from the US and New Zealand, including our own Australian AP‑3Cs, to set up a
search out of RAAF Pearce. I was asked to fly to Perth on the 22nd, to stand up the AIRTG when the scale of the operation increased exponentially.

“We then built the operation up progressively. I was in command of the Australian bases and air assets, and also tasked with co-ordinating the international contribution, ensuring the internationals had the support they required to conduct missions. From the 22nd, lots of assets started to flow in, with the Chinese arriving, and soon
after, the Japanese, Koreans and the Malaysians, noting we already had the Kiwis and US in place.”

Less than three weeks after the loss of the Beijing-bound flight, the following aircraft had arrived at RAAF Pearce, or Perth International, to conduct search operations as directed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre: four RAAF AP-3C Orions, an RNZAF P-3K2 Orion, two USN P-8A Poseidons, two Chinese PLA‑AF Il‑76s, two JMSDF P-3Cs, one Japanese Coast Guard Gulfstream V, one RoKN P-3C, one RoKAF C-130H and three Malaysian C-130Hs. Two E-7
Wedgetail aircraft were also deployed to provide airborne deconfliction in the search area. This was in addition to the international naval ships aiding the search: seven from China, one from Malaysia, and two from the Royal Navy (survey ship HMS Echo and the only submarine to take part in the search, the nuclear-powered HMS Tireless).

For its part, the ADF had also committed a panoply of platforms to Operation Southern Indian Ocean, consisting of RAN ships HMAS Success and HMAS Toowoomba, and
Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield which carried specialist underwater search and location equipment such as a towed pinger locator and Bluefin-21 autonomous
underwater vehicles.

In addition, base support elements were deployed to assist in sustaining the high tempo of operations at the three main staging points of Pearce, Perth and the newly-activated ‘bare bones’ base of Learmonth.

On top of the first response AP-3Cs and, latterly, the Wedgetails from Surveillance and Response Group, the RAAF’s Air Mobility Group deployed a C-17 (transporting a RAN Seahawk to Perth), multiple C-130Js, and one KA-350 King Air; operating logistics support flights for the RAAF Learmonth and Perth-based assets. In addition,
34SQN’s Canberra-based 737BBJs and Challengers flew VIPs such as Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who visited RAAF Pearce to receive personal briefings on the ongoing operation.

AMSA also chartered a number of civilian aircraft, both fixed-wing and rotary, to assist with the search, including operating as radio relays.

Media co-ordination

With global attention focused on the vanished airliner, the Australian government quickly established a Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) to co-ordinate its support for the search effort. Heading the centre was retired Air Chief Marshal Angus
Houston (later to spearhead the MH17 recovery mission).

AIRCDRE Heap explains the role JACC played as the search effort intensified.

“We were working with a lot of media, the global audience was estimated at 80 million people. I had a scrum of 100 media from across the world at the gate at Pearce. We had to bring the media inside the gate, providing separate arrangements to manage their presence, while also overseeing media access to numerous media events on the base. The JACC was formed after the assets had flown in and we had established the
search routine. We had the search well and truly running for about a week, and this had become a very big multi-national operation. There was massive international interest and desire for information, and Australia wanted to manage that with a single
centre of excellence.

“JACC’s role was to, on behalf of the government and specifically the Department of Infrastructure, to co-ordinate all the Australian and international inputs to the search,
including all the professional media. They were also critical in liaising with the families and friends of those on board the airliner to provide an up-to date, coherent and consistent story to the world audience.

“Australia was dedicated to doing everything we could, as best we could, which led to ACM Houston being appointed to lead the JACC by virtue of his experience, knowledge and international standing. He co-ordinated all the higher level issues, including the majority of the media, allowing myself and other tactical commanders to
concentrate on the search operations.”

Commodore Peter Leavy and his Joint Task Force JTF658, based at Fleet Base West, also played a key role in advising and informing the JACC of issues and events relevant to the air and sea search.

If there was something out there from MH370, we would have had a pretty reasonable chance of finding it.

Football field

As the world watched, the AIRTG undertook its methodical search of vast swathes of ocean, which the Australian Maritime Search Authority (AMSA), had divided into zones and assigned to the aircraft at its disposal.

Scheduled flights would depart Pearce, Perth or Learmonth, heading to the pre-planned areas, and begin the painstaking task of visually searching the often choppy seas.

“AMSA used all its sources of information, including input from overseas specialists to decide where to search, and we would liaise with them, providing guidance on how
our aircraft were best employed,” AIRCDRE Heap explained. “AMSA then assigned all aircraft, civil and military, to search areas.

“Once we got into the cycle of tasking, it worked very well. For example, if you imagine a football field, 300 miles by about 100 miles, AMSA divided strips along that. The first strip – the closest – would be done by the Il-76 or a C-130H. The way we deconflicted in the air was by time and space, keeping aircraft strictly to their areas – you went to a particular area and you weren’t allowed to search outside unless you had a specific approval. All nations came with their own requirements, but all nations also abided by the AIRTG direction, doing what we asked them to do, which kept the operation effective, efficient and very safe, despite the challenges of distance, weather, and in some cases, language.

“As an example, the first aircraft that went out each day was the Chinese Il-76 to one of the closer areas, then a P-3 in an intermediate range area, followed by a C-130H in a closer area. And the largest and most distant area was covered by the P-8, as it had the best range and on-task endurance. Using this principle the aircraft were physically deconflicted by area, while also separated as best we could by time.

“The closest we searched was about 800 miles from Perth, the furthest was about 1,500, and at the extreme the Ilyushin was only getting about an hour on task, the P-3 two, two and a half, if that, but the P-8 was getting more than everybody. It was flying out really fast, at altitude, but it still conducted the low level search really well. It dropped down, did its search, then search complete flew back at high altitude with the jetstream.”

For the P-8, which is due to enter RAAF service in 2017, this marked the first time it had been engaged in a long-range search and rescue operation, which allowed the USN, according to AIRCDRE Heap, to “tick a couple of operational test and evaluation boxes at the same time”, proving the capability.

China

With 154 of its nationals on board the missing 777, the Chinese government was determined to make a substantial contribution to Operation Southern Indian Ocean. Despite having the Shaanxi Y-8X maritime patrol aircraft capability, Beijing elected to deploy two Ilyushin Il-76 strategic transports to Pearce to the search operation, most
likely due to the extreme ranges involved.

The participation of these PLA-AF aircraft represented an important step change in Sino/Australian relations, and will likely see further RAAF/PLA‑AF engagement in the future. When the Chinese crews arrived, AIRCDRE Heap’s impression of his fellow military aviators was immediately positive.

“They were great. They were very professional from the moment they turned up. They came into Pearce initially and asked to be moved to Perth due to the longer runway, which we arranged. In Pearce, I got them all into a briefing room, about 39 Chinese
personnel, and I gave them a welcome to Australia, overview of the situation and task. You could tell straight away, looking into each other’s eyes, that we were all hardcore military aviators with many years of operational flying, so it was a common link even though we didn’t speak the same language.

“We very quickly built a lot of mutual respect and trust. They were absolutely dedicated to finding MH370, and so were we, which bonded us in a common and noble cause from the outset.”

Operating from Perth, the Chinese Ilyushins were assigned takeoff slots at first light, with nearby residents left in no doubt that the day’s flying had begun in earnest. To maximise the Il-76 search area, a maximum weight takeoff was required, which was aided by the cooler morning temperatures and Perth’s longer main runway (03/21,
3,444 metres in length).

“We also tried to keep crews in the same launch time for body clock, or circadian rhythm purposes. The Chinese conducted one mission each day, using alternate crews. They would pre-flight at 5am, were never late, and depending on conditions would be back on the deck by 3 in the afternoon. And that’s what they did for 38 days.”

In order to help Chinese aircrew operate in what was quite a foreign environment, RAAF personnel were embedded on board the Il-76s.

“We had Australian aircrew who flew with the Chinese crews at their request, to learn from them and them from us, and to assist with some of the nuances of our procedures in Australia. Also, remember these guys were not professional maritime search operators, they were air mobility specialists. So the crews were adapting to low-level overwater operations, primarily using the glazed nose navigator stations
and cockpit from which to visually search, which provided extremely good visibility of the ocean below.”

Arrows from the quiver

While the human eye remained perhaps the most important sensor engaged in the search for MH370, other, more high-tech means were employed.

“We had the Iridium self locating datum marking buoy provided by AMSA – the first mission using this new capability was also the only search mission flown by the RAAF C-130J – and they were also deployed from the P-3s, C-130Hs and the Il-76,” AIRCDRE Heap explained.

“This was another innovation that hadn’t been used before by our crews, but critical in a search which was being conducted a long time past the probable ocean impact time. The buoy would send out a signal for at least 30 days, broadcasting a GPS position back to AMSA. From this information, drift over time could be measured, which informed the drift assessments. There were about four or five international drift models in use by AMSA, and using a drift model was how the AMSA Rescue Coordination Centre refined search areas. These buoys were probably the most important enablers employed in the early days of the Australian-based search.”

The ADF, in cooperation with an Australian company, SONARTE CHATLAS, also developed, tested and employed a special acoustic search capability on RAAF AP-3Cs to potentially detect the MH370 black box pingers. More than 2,000 sonobouys were dropped as part of the search, but again no doubt due to the difficulty of the search and extreme water depth, there were no confirmed transmissions detected from MH370’s black boxes.

The importance of electronic and acoustic sensors in the search for aircraft debris can be appreciated all the more in light of this observation by AIRCDRE Heap.

“Most of the airliner was white as well, and the sea state that we generally experienced had a lot of white caps. So it was a very difficult job done using the human eye as the primary sensor in a visual search.”

Vigilant Wedgetail

In another first for Operation Southern Indian Ocean, 2SQN’s E-7 Wedgetail made its operational debut when it deployed to the bare base at Learmonth, near Exmouth in Western Australia.

Having readied the base, personnel from the RAAF’s Combat Support Group ensured the Wedgetail was kept supported, including a period of two days when the base was cut off by floodwaters. CSG’s efforts allowed the Wedgetail to operate from a base that was much closer to the search area, while also providing a functioning diversion airfield for all search aircraft. AIRCDRE Heap explained the utility of an AEW platform in an operation like Southern Indian Ocean.

“At one point we were conducting 10 visual searches a day. And there were up to seven or eight aircraft simultaneously on task, at extreme ranges. You mix that up with wild weather, a cloud base at 1,200 to 1,000 feet, you’ve got some communication and language difficulties, and I was becoming concerned with aircraft deconfliction. The thing that further complicated the situation was the potential for ship-based helicopters from the seven or eight Chinese search assets, or the Malaysian and RAN assets, to turn up in the same airspace.

So I was thinking, I have a lot of metal zinging around out there, a long way from home, and sometimes they might be out of VHF range, either from each other or the co-ordinating warships. And with my fixed-wing aircraft forced down low, the choppers may also have been forced down low, too, so the worry was there may be a collision. My prime concern throughout the operation was safety. We didn’t want another tragedy of our own making.

“Our solution was to use HMAS Toowoomba which has good air search radar and aircraft control capability for deconfliction. But HMAS Toowoomba’s radar is line-of-sight, and its VHF comms were limited to a range of only 150 miles or so. So our two E-7 Wedgetails could go out there and cover the whole search area. They covered about seven of the 10 on-task search hours that our assets were in the air, helping all the nations get on and off task, relaying communications, answering questions, while monitoring and co-ordinating the helicopters – essentially providing an air advisory service over a large area, 1,200nm from land.”

With the E-7 acting as an air advisory service, the AIRTG’s P-3s, P-8s, C-130s and Il-76s concentrated on searching the vast Indian Ocean swell for debris.

“The E-7 would arrive on station, with the callsign ‘Eagle’. All aircraft checked in with them on the way in and out, asking them for airborne traffic, weather conditions, or to get an ATC clearance for them if they couldn’t get civil communications.

That worked extremely well. A lot of the nations that hadn’t worked in that environment thought [the E-7 was] fantastic. Instead of arranging deconfliction themselves, or talking to a warship they weren’t familiar with, they could talk to the E-7 which could assist with everything from situational awareness to relaying an emergency mayday call if required. If an aircraft had a serious emergency, the Wedgetail could have even monitored and shadowed the distressed aircraft back to land, controlling any rescue response.”

Wind down

With the sea steadfastly refusing to yield its location, the air search for evidence of MH370 off the Western Australian coast was concluded on April 28. An Australian Transport Safety Bureau statement at the time announced: “Using current analyses, the search team has been able to reach a consensus in identifying a priority underwater search area for the next phase of the search.

“The priority area of approximately 60,000 km2 extends along the arc for 650km in a northeast direction from Broken Ridge. The width of the priority search area is 93km. This area was the subject of the surface search from Day 21-26.”

The air search for MH370 was the largest multi-national long-range maritime air search operation in history. The absence of wreckage further prolongs not only the mystery of MH370, but the unassuaged grief for the family members of those on board.

However, there can be no doubt that all that was humanly possible was done by Australia and its partners to locate the downed airliner.

The AIRTG, at its peak, comprised 776 personnel from seven nations, operating a total of 20 aircraft. In all, 339 missions were flown totalling 3,000 flying hours, with 739 hours of on-station maritime search completed. A total of 185 objects were reported during the visual search by AIRTG missions, with 54 of these photographed, none of which belonged to MH370. Operation Southern Indian Ocean encompassed 42 days of search operations and covered 4.5 million square kilometres of the ocean’s surface.

“We were extremely motivated,” AIRCDRE Heap reflects. “We were a team of highly professional military aviators from the Asia-Pacific. We were there to do our best, not only for our nations, but for the families and friends of the people on that aircraft from all across the world. We had a very noble cause to run hard at, and there was a tremendous drive and dedication to solve this mystery. All nations found objects. It’s testament to the professionalism of the crews that we were finding small objects in the water. If there was something out there from MH370, we would have had a pretty reasonable chance of finding it… it was an example of what humans can do when we put aside our differences and unite in a common cause.”