Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak (R) meets with RAAF P3 Orion captain Lieutenant Russell Adams (L) and his crew involved in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370at RAAF Pearce Air Base in Bullsbrook, 35 kms north of Perth on April 3, 2014.
Malaysia's Prime Minister has left the Australian city of Perth after taking a first-hand look at the search for flight MH-370. The plane has been missing for nearly four weeks, with the focus of the search now in the Southern Indian Ocean. Najib and his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott both say the search will not stop until answers are found. [Special coverage]
Making preparations for the man who is, nominally, at least, in charge of the search for flight MH370. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak arrived first thing to find out how the search was going. And his first meeting of the day was with Angus Houston, retired head of the Australian armed forces, and now in charge of the Joint agency coordination center.
Air Chief Marshall Houston wanted Mr Najib to be under no illusions how difficult the task was.
"This is one of the most demanding search and rescue operations, or search and recovery operations, that I have ever seen, and I think probably one of the most complex operations of this nature that the world has seen." Houston said.
But today was about trying to find success in the overwhelming frustration of the search. Airmen from seven nations have been working side by side with surprising cohesion. That alone, said the Prime Minister and his Australian counterpart, Tony Abbott, was a major breakthrough. The reality is, however, that one month on, they are no closer to finding the missing plane.
At this stage no one is talking about scaling down the search. But flights like this cost ten thousand dollars an hour. The operation of military vessels in the sea below costs hundreds of thousands more. The need to bring the episode to a close for the families however, for the moment, is more pressing.
"We owe it to the grieving families to give them comfort and closure to this rather tragic event and the world expects us to do our level best and I'm very confident that you will indeed show what we can do together as a group of nations that we want to find answers, we want to provide comfort to the families and we will not rest until answers are indeed found." Razak said.
The search operation remains fully operational as Malaysias Prime Minister returns home. But there is a growing realization that the answers they search, may never be found.
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