Malaysia plane search widens along new lines
MALAYSIA has drafted in search teams from 25 countries to hunt for the missing flight MH370 as the search widens across swathes of Asian land and sea.
Investigators have shifted the search area following a recently discovered satellite signal that suggests the plane was intact and probably airborne for seven hours after losing radar contact.
The plane’s final automated signal from the Inmarsat satellite does not allow investigators to pinpoint the aircraft, but it puts its location along an arc a certain distance from the satellite.
The arc spans from Kazakhstan and China down to the middle of the Indian Ocean, which is not completely covered by land-based radar monitoring, complicating the search efforts.
Malaysia Airlines said the use of raw satellite signals to locate a plane was “truly an unprecedented situation”.
Malaysia’s acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussain said authorities had not received any ransom or other demand. “That makes if very difficult for us to verify whether it’s a hijacking or terrorist,” he said.
However, he added that the plane’s addressing and reporting system (Acars) was disabled before the pilot made his final radio sign-off to Malaysian air traffic control.
Authorities are also combing through the lives of the 239 people on board the Malaysian Airlines flight, which vanished on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on Saturday 8 March.
Over the weekend, Malaysian police searched the homes of captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, with the focus now centring around Shah’s personal flight simulator.
MH370 TIMELINE: WHAT WE KNOW
■ Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 takes off from Kuala Lumpur at 00:41 on Saturday 8 March.
■ At around 01:30, the plane’s transponder is switched off, cutting signals sent by radar. At an unknown time, the ACARS comms system is also shut off.
■ Around this time – after the tracking comms were disabled, the Malaysian transport minister said yesterday – the pilot checks in with air traffic control for the final time to confirm the plane is leaving Malaysian airspace.
■ After this, the plane drastically changes course, setting out westwards, the most recent available information shows.
■ Military radar records, examined several days later, show an unidentified plane passing back over the Malay Peninsula at 02:40.
■ The last known sign of MH370 came from an automated signal at 08:11 that bounced from an Inmarsat satellite, putting its location on an arc stretching from Kazakhstan through China to the Indian Ocean.
■ The homes of the pilot and co-pilot were searched on Saturday 15 March.
■ Investigators are still working on background checks of all passengers and crew for clues.