Students join search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane

An exceptional Charles Darwin University student has joined the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370.

The 18-year-old Bachelor of Nursing student, Laura Wright, is the youngest person in her team of four Northern Territory Emergency Services volunteers from Darwin. They travelled to Perth this week and are currently on standby.

Laura said this would be the first time she had been in the field as an SES volunteer because the age requirement was 18 and above.

“I’m missing a bit of class but this is perfect timing because I’ve finished most of my assignments,” Laura said.

“I highly recommend volunteering because it’s an extremely rewarding thing to do.”

Laura said she would use skills in concentration when called out to do a sweep in a search plane.

“It depends how long the sweeps are but you have to make sure you don’t break concentration during the sweep, otherwise you might miss something,” she said.

“It’s just discipline.”

Laura practiced sweeping in a police plane in Alice Springs as part of the NTES training.

She said she chose to volunteer in the search to help in the global effort and to gain air observing experience.

Laura was awarded CDU’s Aspire Travel Grant while completing her final year at Tennant Creek High School last year.

She said she hopes to work in remote health once she has completed her tertiary studies.

CDU Exercise and Sport Science student Karl Kratschmer is also assisting in the search for the missing MH370 plane as an NTES volunteer.