Flight MH370: 25 countries helping Malaysia in complex search

Twenty five countries are now involved in a vast search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that disappeared over a week ago, Malaysian officials say.

The search area – from central Asia to the southern Indian Ocean – takes in large tracts of land and sea.

An already complex search operation has become even more difficult, Malaysia’s acting transport minister says.

Crew, passengers and ground staff are being investigated after it was confirmed the jet was commandeered.

Investigators are trying to obtain more radar and satellite data from any of the countries that flight MH370 may have passed over, with its 239 crew and passengers.

The leaders of several Asian countries have been briefed by the Malaysia government in what acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has described as a new phase of the search.

“From focusing mainly on shallow seas, we are now looking at large tracts of land, crossing 11 countries, as well as deep and remote oceans,” he said at a news conference.

Malaysian officials are contacting countries including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, China, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and France.

They are also asking countries to provide assistance in the search for the plane, including satellite data and analysis, ground-search capabilities, and maritime and air assets.

After checking their radar recordings, Pakistani civil aviation officials said they had found no sign of the missing jet.

Malaysian national police chief Gen Khalid Abu Bakar said background checks had been requested on all passengers aboard the plane, but that so far nothing suspicious had been reported – though some intelligence agencies still had to respond.

The police are also reportedly looking at the family life and psychological state of the plane’s pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, and searched their homes on Saturday.

Zaharie Shah and Fariq Abdul had not asked to fly together, Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed at the news conference.

Officers spoke to relatives of Zaharie Shah and experts are examining the pilot’s personal flight simulator. Police have visited his house for a second day.

Those who know Zaharie Shah, 53, insist he is a normal family man.

With 18,000 hours of flying experience, Zaharie Shah is a self-confessed “aviation geek” and proudly posted pictures online of the flight simulator he built at home.

Fariq Hamid was said to be engaged, and had just graduated to the cockpit of the Boeing 777. A local community leader described him as a “good boy, a good Muslim, humble and quiet”. The only known blot on his record is that he invited two female passengers into the cockpit of a 2011 flight from Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, in breach of regulations.

As well as the crew and passengers, police are investigating the engineers and other ground staff who may have had contact with the aircraft before take-off.

A team from British telecommunications company Inmarsat team arrived on Saturday in Malaysia.

An Inmarsat satellite is said have continued receiving signals from flight MH370 at least five hours after the plane was reported lost.

A team of French investigators is to travel to Malaysia on Monday to help with the search, the French transport ministry has said in a statement. They will join members of the US National Transportation Safety Board already in Malaysia.