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Australia has announced it is investigating two objects seen on satellite images that could potentially be linked to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
Planes and ships from Australia, New Zealand and the US were heading to the area 1,550 miles south-west of Perth to search for the objects.
The largest appeared to be 24 m in size, maritime authorities said, but warned they could be unrelated to the plane.
Australia has been searching in the southern Indian Ocean for the aircraft.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 when it lost contact with air traffic controllers. A total of 239 people were on board.
Twenty-six nations have been involved in a major search for the missing plane, which Malaysia says was intentionally diverted.
Investigators have been scrutinizing the backgrounds of both the crew and the passengers, but have so far identified no evidence of terror or other potentially relevant links.
A number of sightings of possible debris have been investigated in the course of the search but so far none have proved to be linked.
Australian PM Tony Abbott announced the discovery of the objects in parliament.
Tony Abbott: “The task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult.”
Australia is investigating two objects seen on satellite images that could potentially be linked to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane
“The Australian Maritime Safety Authority [AMSA] has received information based on satellite information of objects possibly related to the search,” he said.
“Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified.”
An Australian Orion aircraft is currently in the search area and three more planes, including US and New Zealand aircraft, are on their way. A merchant ship is due there later in the day and an Australian naval vessel, HMAS Success, is also on its way.
AMSA said the debris had been located in waters some 1,550 miles south-west of the Australian city of Perth.
The objects identified were of a “reasonable size”, AMSA’s general manager John Young said. The largest object appeared to be about 24m in size, he said.
“The objects are relatively indistinct. The indication to me is of objects that are of a reasonable size and probably awash with water and bobbing up and down over the surface,” he said.
“This is a lead, it is probably the best lead we have right now. But we need to get there, find them, see them, assess them, to know whether it’s really meaningful or not.”
John Young warned that poor visibility in the area could hamper the search.
Australia informed Malaysian authorities of the development on Thursday morning.
“We have been following every single lead and this time I just hope that this time it is a positive development,” Malaysia’s Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.
Earlier this week, Australia was asked by Malaysia to take responsibility for the “southern corridor” search.
Investigators had identified two corridors of territory – one to the north and one to the south – spanning the possible positions of the plane about seven hours after take-off.
This was based on its last faint signal to a satellite – an hourly “handshake” broadcast even when the main communication systems are switched off.
Flight MH370 lost contact with controllers over the South China Sea as it crossed from Malaysian to Vietnamese air space.
Malaysian officials say it then turned west and its last position – according to Malaysian military radar – was over the Malacca Straits, in the opposite direction to its planned flight path.
Attention has focused on the crew and on Wednesday multiple unidentified US officials said that the FBI was helping Malaysia analyze data from a flight simulator taken from the captain’s home.
Hishammuddin Hussein, at a press conference on Wednesday, stressed the captain should be considered innocent until proved otherwise and said that members of his family were co-operating with the investigation.
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The FBI is now helping the Malaysian government’s search for the missing flight MH370.
The agency is believed to be helping the Malaysian investigators examine a home flight simulator belonging to one of the Malaysia Airlines jet’s pilots for clues.
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah is said to have deleted some files from the computer simulator.
Teams from 26 countries are trying to find flight MH370, which went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board.
The flight was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
The FBI, through its legal office in Kuala Lumpur, “continues to engage with appropriate Malaysian authorities and provide support where necessary to the Malaysian government in their investigation of the missing aircraft”, according to a statement issued on Wednesday.
The agency would not comment on the specifics of its investigation, nor what had been communicated to its investigators by Malaysian authorities.
On Wednesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Malaysia was also speaking to US aviation and transport accident investigation agencies.
The FBI is now helping the Malaysian government’s search for the missing flight MH370
“We are finding that the level of co-operation with the Malaysian government is solid, and we are working closely with the Malaysians as well as our other international partners in this effort to find out what happened to the plane and why it happened,” Jay Carney said.
A US law enforcement official told the Reuters news agency the Malaysian officials gave the FBI access to data generated by both pilots including from a hard drive attached to the captain’s flight simulator and electronic media used by a co-pilot.
But the official stressed there was no guarantee the FBI analysis would yield further clues.
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu said some data was deleted on February 3 from the simulator found at Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s home and that investigators were trying to recover the deleted files.
The acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, stressed the captain should be considered innocent until proven guilty and that members of his family were co-operating with the investigation. Deleting files would not necessarily be suspicious, particularly if it were done to free up memory space.
The Malaysian authorities have said the evidence so far suggests the Boeing-777 was deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca with its communications systems disabled. They are unsure what happened next.
Investigators have identified two giant arcs of territory spanning the possible positions of the plane about seven hours after take-off.
This is based on its last faint signal to a satellite – an hourly “handshake” broadcast even when communications are switched off. The arcs stretch up as far as Kazakhstan in central Asia and deep into the southern Indian Ocean west of Australia.
Investigators are considering the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board.
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Police in the Maldives have said they are looking into local reports that a low-flying plane was sighted above Kudahuvadhoo, south-west of the capital Male, around 06:15 local time on March 8 and that its colors matched those of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
The Maldives National Defense Force said that although nothing had been detected on its radar, it would provide any assistance needed for the search.
If the plane was indeed flight MH370, it would have flown far slower than normal, in order for the timings to be possible.
Police in the Maldives have said they are looking into local reports that a low-flying plane was sighted above Kudahuvadhoo
The main Maldives airport is one of those featured in the flight simulator discovered at the home of the captain.
The Malaysian authorities have said the evidence so far suggests the Boeing-777 was deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca, with its communications systems disabled. They are unsure what happened next.
Investigators have identified two giant arcs of territory spanning the possible positions of the plane about seven hours after take-off.
This is based on its last faint signal to a satellite – an hourly “handshake” signal that continues even when communications are switched off. The arcs stretch up as far as Kazakhstan in central Asia and deep into the southern Indian Ocean.
Investigators are considering the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board.
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Chinese relatives of the missing flight MH370 passengers were dragged away from journalists during a news conference in Malaysia as frustration with the plane search boiled over.
They were attempting to speak to Chinese journalists outside the daily press conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Teams from 26 countries are trying to find Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board.
One of the relatives, a middle-aged woman, cried: “They give different messages every day! Where’s the flight now? Find our relatives! Find the aircraft!”
The Malaysian government said later it regretted the scenes and ordered an investigation, saying “one can only imagine the anguish they are going through”.
During the daily briefing, Malaysia’s acting transport minister rejected reports that emerged on Tuesday that the plane had been spotted in the Maldives.
A local councilor on the island of Kudahuvadhoo has said that about 10 people described seeing a large aeroplane some hours after it disappeared.
The missing jet relatives were prevented from entering the media centre in Kuala Lumpur, before being bundled away
The acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, also said the authorities had investigated almost all the passengers and crew of the plane, but had so far found no information of significance.
“We have received passengers’ background checks from all countries apart from Ukraine and Russia,” he told reporters. There were two Ukrainians and one Russian on the plane.
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu also said some data had been deleted from the flight simulator found at Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s home on February 3, and that investigators were trying to recover the deleted files.
Hishammuddin Hussein stressed Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah should be considered innocent until proven guilty and that members of his family were co-operating with the investigation. Deleting files would not necessarily be suspicious, particularly if it were to free up memory space.
Chinese citizens made up the overwhelming majority of the passengers on the plane, which had been heading from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Responding to complaints among relatives of those on board that they are not being kept fully informed, the Malaysian authorities said they would send a team to Beijing to liaise with Chinese families waiting for news.
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Families of the Chinese passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have threatened a hunger strike if the Malaysian authorities fail to provide more accurate information.
Relatives vented their anger at a meeting with the airline in Beijing.
Officials in Malaysia say they are trying to narrow the search area, which now covers about 2.24 million square nautical miles (7.68 million sq km).
Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board.
Some 25 countries are involved in looking for the plane.
A total of 153 Chinese nationals were on board the missing aircraft, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
China’s state media has been criticizing the Malaysian operation.
Some Chinese relatives have said they believe the Malaysian authorities are holding information back and have demanded more clarity.
After a meeting with officials from Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday, families held a vote on organizing a hunger strike.
Families of the Chinese passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have threatened a hunger strike if the Malaysian authorities fail to provide more accurate information
Ahmad Jauhari Yahy, chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, told a news conference on Monday that the airline was doing everything it could for the families.
Meanwhile, following speculation about the pilot’s links to Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has said: “The search for flight MH370 is bigger than politics.”
Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a supporter of the jailed politician.
Hishammuddin Hussein praised the international response to the search efforts and said teams were continuing to search two vast air corridors north and south of the plane’s last known location.
He added that the Malaysian authorities still believed the disappearance was a result of “deliberate action” on the plane.
Malaysia says the plane was intentionally diverted and could have flown on either a northern or southern arc from its last known position in the Malacca Straits.
China said earlier it had started searching its territory for the aircraft.
The Chinese ambassador to Malaysia, Huang Huikang, also said background checks had shown no evidence to suggest any of the Chinese passengers had terror links, Xinhua news agency reported.
China said it had also deployed 21 satellites to help with the search.
Thailand’s air force said on Tuesday a re-examination of its radar data found what may have been the plane travelling west towards the Straits of Malacca shortly after it lost contact with air traffic controllers.
The Thai military had previously said it had not detected any sign of the aircraft.
The Malaysia Airlines plane left Kuala Lumpur at 00:40 local time on March 8. The last transmission from the plane’s Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was received at 01:07.
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China has started searching its territory for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, while Australia has narrowed its search area in the south.
Efforts to find the aircraft are focusing on two vast air corridors north and south of the plane’s last known location.
China said no evidence of terror links had been found in Chinese passengers.
The Malaysia Airlines plane went missing on March 8 with 239 people on board. Some 26 countries are involved in search efforts.
Malaysia says the plane was intentionally diverted and could have flown on either a northern or southern arc from its last known position in the Malacca Straits.
Search efforts are focused on two corridors – one stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and another from Indonesia to the Indian Ocean.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that the aircraft’s crew – or other individuals on the plane – were involved in its disappearance.
A total of 153 Chinese nationals were on board the missing aircraft, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
China has started searching its territory for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia, Huang Huikang, said that search and rescue operations in the Chinese territories of the northern corridor had begun, Xinhua news agency reported.
Based on background checks, there was no evidence to suggest that the mainland Chinese passengers on the plane were involved in hijacking or launching a terror attack, Mr Huang added.
China said it had also deployed 21 satellites to help with the search.
Meanwhile, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said it had narrowed down its search area in the southern Indian Ocean based on satellite data and analysis of the aircraft’s possible movements.
However, AMSA said the search area was still vast.
“A needle in a haystack remains a good analogy,” AMSA Emergency Response General Manager John Young said, adding that there was a “difficult” task ahead.
“The sheer size of the search area poses a huge challenge – the search area is more than 600,000 square kilometres [230,000 sq miles],” he added.
Late on Monday, US officials said the US navy ship USS Kidd had been taken off the search because the enlarged search area meant that “long-range patrol aircraft” were “more suited” to the mission.
The move was made “in consultation with the Malaysian government”, officials said in a statement. USS Kidd had searched the Andaman Sea but found “no debris or wreckage associated with an aircraft”, they added.
The US says it is using patrol aircraft including the P-8A Poseidon and P-3C Orion to continue search efforts, with the P-8 taking part in search efforts in the south corridor.
The Malaysia Airlines plane left Kuala Lumpur at 00:40 local time on March 8. The last transmission from the plane’s Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was received at 01:07.
A transmission expected 30 minutes later did not come through, Malaysia Airlines Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahy told reporters. Officials believe the communications systems were deliberately disabled.
Several countries have already rejected the suggestion that their airspace might have been breached.
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According to Malaysian officials, the co-pilot of missing flight MH370 spoke the last words to ground controllers before it vanished.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that Malaysia Airlines jet’s crew were involved in its disappearance.
The search for the plane has extended into two vast air corridors.
Twenty-six countries have been asked to help find the jet, which went missing over a week ago with 239 people on board.
Malaysia says the plane was intentionally diverted and could have flown on either a northern or southern arc from its last known position.
Ahmad Jauhari Yahy, chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, told a press conference on Monday that initial investigations had indicated that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid had calmly said: “All right, good night” shortly before the plane disappeared.
However, it is not clear whether the last words came before or after one of the plane’s tracking devices was switched off. Officials believe the communications systems were deliberately disabled.
Missing flight MH370’s co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid spoke the last words to ground controllers before the plane vanished
Police have searched the homes of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27.
A flight simulator taken from Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s home was being reassembled and examined at police headquarters, officials said.
Investigators are also looking at passengers, engineers and other ground staff who may have had contact with the aircraft before take-off.
The plane left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 00:40 local time on March 8.
Officials say the sign-off to air traffic controllers came at 01:19 as it left Malaysian airspace.
The last transmission from the plane’s Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) was received at 01:07.
“We don’t know when the ACARS was switched off after that,” Ahmad Jauhari Yahy said.
“It was supposed to transmit 30 minutes from there, but that transmission did not come through.”
The plane disappeared off air traffic controllers’ screens at 01:21, when it was over the South China Sea.
Searches have started in two air corridors – one stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand, and another from Indonesia to the Indian Ocean.
Two-thirds of flight MH370 passengers were from China and the country’s state media has been criticizing the Malaysian operation.
Chinese PM Li Keqiang in a phone call asked the Malaysian PM Najib Razak to provide more detailed information about the missing flight “in a timely, accurate and comprehensive manner”, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.
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Australia is taking control of the “southern vector” search for the missing Malaysian Airlines jet, Australian PM Tony Abbott says.
According to Malaysian officials, flight MH370 was intentionally diverted and could have flown on either a northern or southern arc from its last known position.
More than 20 nations have been asked to help search for the missing jet, and evaluate radar and satellite data.
There has also been scrutiny of the last communication from the plane.
Malaysian officials said on Sunday that the last words from the cockpit – “All right, good night” – came after the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), which transmits key information about the plane to the ground, had been deliberately switched off.
On Saturday, Malaysian police searched the homes of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid. A flight simulator taken from the captain’s home was being re-assembled and examined at police headquarters, officials said.
Friends of both pilots – who investigators say did not ask to fly together – have expressed disbelief at the possibility of their involvement.
Australia is taking control of the “southern vector” search for the missing Malaysian Airlines jet
Investigators are also looking at passengers, engineers and other ground staff who may have had contact with the aircraft before take-off in their search for clues.
Malaysia Airlines plane, carrying a total of 239 passengers and crew, left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 00:40 local time on March 8.
The plane disappeared off air traffic controllers’ screens at about 01:20, when it was over the South China Sea.
Malaysian officials said on Saturday that according to a military radar, the aircraft then turned and flew back over Malaysia before heading in a north-west direction.
A satellite was able to pick up a signal from the plane until 08:11 local time, although it was unable to give a precise location.
Investigators are now looking at two possible corridors – a northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through to northern Thailand, and a southern corridor stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
Australian PM Tony Abbott said he was adding more resources to the search in response to a request from Malaysia.
Tony Abbott told parliament on Monday that Malaysian PM Najib Razak asked Australia to “take responsibility for the search on the southern vector, which the Malaysian authorities now think was one possible flight path for this ill-fated aircraft”.
“I agreed that we would do so. I offered the Malaysian prime minister additional maritime surveillance resources which he gratefully accepted.”
Malaysia’s navy and air force were also deploying assets to the southern corridor on Monday, Malaysia’s transport ministry said.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s Civil Aviation Authority said it was not possible for the plane to have reached its airspace undetected.
Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority said it had checked its radar recordings but “found no clue” connected to the flight.
Aside from Australia, Malaysia has sent diplomatic notes requesting assistance to 25 countries.
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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.
Twenty five countries are now involved in a vast search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370
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.
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The Kuala Lumpur homes of the two pilots of missing Malaysia Airlines plane that vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board are being searched by police.
Malaysian police are also reportedly looking at the family life and psychological state of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27.
This comes after the authorities said the communications systems of the plane had been deliberately disabled.
The Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight is believed to have then changed course.
According to satellite evidence, the Boeing 777 could have continued flying for a further seven hours after its last radar contact, Malaysian PM Najib Razak said.
He added that the plane could be anywhere from Kazakhstan to the Indian Ocean.
Najib Razak stopped short of saying it was a hijacking, saying only that they were investigating “all possibilities”.
In a separate development, India on Sunday suspended its search for the plane around the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands and also in the Bay of Bengal.
Delhi said it acted at the request of the Malaysian authorities.
China – which had 153 citizens on board flight MH370 – has urged Malaysia to continue providing it with “thorough and exact information” on the search.
The homes of Zaharie Ahmad Shah and Fariq Abdul Hamid were searched on Saturday, a senior police officer familiar with the investigation was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“We are not ruling out any sort of motivation at the moment,” the official said.
Malaysian police are also investigating the family life and psychological state of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid
The authorities have so far released no new details on the pilots’ investigation.
However, nothing has been ruled in or out – so terrorism, piracy or even an elaborate suicide are all options now being considered.
Zaharie Ahmad Shah joined Malaysia Airlines more than 30 years ago, and was considered a very experience pilot.
Fariq Abdul Hamid recently graduated to the cockpit of a Boeing 777. It is believed that he was considering marriage.
It was also reported that Fariq Abdul Hamid had drawn scrutiny after he and another unnamed pilot invited two female passengers to sit in the cockpit during a flight in 2011, according to the Associated Press.
Flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 00:40 local time on March 8 and disappeared off air traffic controllers’ screens at about 01:20.
PM Najib Razak told a news conference on Saturday that new satellite evidence shows “with a high degree of certainty” that the one of the aircraft’s communications systems – the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) – was disabled just before it had reached the east coast of Malaysia.
ACARS is a service that allows computers aboard the plane to “talk” to computers on the ground, relaying in-flight information about the health of its systems.
Shortly afterwards, near the cross-over point between Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic controllers, the plane’s transponder – which emits an identifying signal – was switched off, he said.
According to a military radar, the aircraft then turned and flew back over Malaysia before heading in a north-west direction.
A satellite was able to pick up a signal from the plane until 08:11 local time – more than seven hours after it lost radar contact – although it was unable to give a precise location, Najib Razak said.
The prime minister went on to say that based on this new data, investigators “have determined the plane’s last communication with a satellite was in one of two possible corridors”: a northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through to northern Thailand and a southern corridor stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean
Investigators will now focus on trying to obtain the radar data from any of the countries the Boeing 777 may have passed over.
This could include Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Pakistan.
Along with the Chinese passengers, there were 38 Malaysians and citizens of Iran, the US, Canada, Indonesia, Australia, India, France, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan and the Netherlands on board.
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Radar coverage of the area where Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing is patchy and often not even switched on, according to aviation experts.
During the investigation it has emerged that civilian systems do not cover large swatches of the areas the plane could have gone, and that military systems are often left off to save money.
Air traffic control teams rely transponders signals to track planes – but investigators believe that the device was intentionally switched off on the missing aircraft.
Radar coverage of the area where Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 went missing is patchy and often not even switched on
Military systems, meanwhile, are often limited, switched off, or routinely ignore aircraft they do not think are suspicious.
A Rear Admiral in the Indian armed forces, which are aiding search efforts over the Andaman Islands, said: “It’s possible that the military radars were switched off as we operate on an <<as required>> basis.”
However, experts have suggested that a disappearing transponder signal would be treated more seriously over Europe or America, and that a parallel situation would be unlikely to develop.
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According to officials, the missing Malaysia Airlines jet was hijacked, steered off-course and could have reached Pakistan.
It appears that people with significant flying experience could have turned off flight MH370’s communication devices.
A Malaysian government official said that hijacking theory was now “conclusive”, and, as a result, police have raided the luxury homes of both the captain and the co-pilot.
The search operation has now been focused on two “corridors”, one which extends from north west from Thailand to the Kazakstan-Turkmenistan border and the other which opens out into the southern Indian Ocean.
Countries in the plane’s potential flightpath have now joined a huge diplomatic effort to locate the missing passengers, but China described the revelation as “painfully belated”.
While Malaysian PM Najib Razak refused to confirm that flight MH370 was taken over, he admitted “deliberate action” on board the plane resulted in it changing course and losing connection with ground crews.
The missing Malaysia Airlines jet was hijacked, steered off-course and could have reached Pakistan
The plane’s communication system was switched off as it headed west over the Malaysian seaboard and could have flown for another seven hours on its fuel reserves.
It is not yet clear where the plane could have been taken, however PM Najib Razak said the most recent satellite data suggests the plane could have headed to one of two possible flight corridors.
The last radar contact was made at 8.11 a.m. on March 8 along one of the corridors, 7 hours and 31 minutes after takeoff, but the plane could have deviated further from these points.
US investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the passengers are being held at an unknown location and suggest that faint “pings” were being transmitted for several hours after the flight lost contact with the ground.
NASA has also joined the international search operation, analyzing satellite data and images that have already been gathered.
Malaysian authorities and others are investigating the two pilots and 10 crew members, along with the 227 passengers on board.
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Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak has said the communications systems of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 were deliberately disabled.
According to satellite and radar evidence, the plane then changed course and could have continued flying for a further seven hours.
The plane’s last signal came about seven and a half hours after takeoff, meaning it could have ended up as far as Kazakhstan or deep in the southern Indian Ocean, PM Najib Razak said Saturday.
Najib Razak’s statement confirmed days of mounting speculation that the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 239 people on board on March 8 was not accidental, and underlines the massive task for searchers who already been scouring vast areas of ocean.
The Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight last made contact with air traffic control as it headed east towards the South China Sea, about one hour after take-off.
Najib Razak told a news conference that new satellite evidence shows “with a high degree of certainty” that the aircraft’s communications systems were disabled just before it reached the east coast of Malaysia.
Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak has said the communications systems of the missing flight MH370 were deliberately disabled (photo Reuters)
According to a military radar, the flight then turned and flew back over Malaysia before turning north-west.
A satellite was able to pick up a signal from the plane for some seven hours after it lost radar contact, although it was unable to give a precise location, Najib Razak said.
He went on to say that based on this new data, investigators “have determined the plane’s last communication with a satellite was in one of two possible corridors”:
- a northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through to northern Thailand
- a southern corridor stretching from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean
Najib Razak said that in light of the new evidence, the investigation had “entered a new phase” and would focus on the crew and passengers on board.
Addressing reports that the plane had been hijacked, he said only “we are still investigating all possibilities as to what caused MH370 to deviate”.
An extensive search of the seas around Malaysia – involving 14 countries, 43 ships and 58 aircraft – have proved fruitless.
Najib Razak’s news conference goes some way to addressing the speculation that had begun circulating in local media that the plane had been hijacked and had somehow landed intact.
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New reports claim Malaysia Airlines plane may have been flying for more than five hours after it disappeared.
According to a BBC report, it is believed the plane was sending automated signals to a satellite system long after radar contact was lost.
This would mean flight MH370 could have flown more than 1,000 miles beyond its last confirmed position.
On Friday, US surveillance teams were sent to the Indian Ocean, much further west than the initial searches
The Indian navy has also been asked to search an area in the Bay of Bengal off India’s Chennai coast, Malaysian authorities said on Friday.
Flight MH370 vanished last Saturday with 239 people on board.
The plane – which was supposed to be flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur – last made contact with air traffic control over the South China Sea to the east of Malaysia.
Malaysia Airlines plane may have been flying for more than five hours after it disappeared
However, the BBC understands that a satellite system operated by London-based telecommunications company Inmarsat received an automated signal from flight MH370 at least five hours after the plane was reported lost.
The signal could only have been sent if the plane was intact and powered, and may explain why search teams have moved to the Indian Ocean.
Earlier, US media outlets also quoted unnamed officials as saying that the Boeing 777 was “pinging” satellites for hours after its last contact with air traffic controllers.
White House spokesman Jay Carney has confirmed that US teams were shifting their focus to the Indian Ocean because of “new information”, but gave no further details.
Malaysia has not yet commented on the latest claims.
The US – one of a number of countries helping to search for the plane – has sent a navy destroyer and a sophisticated surveillance aircraft to the Indian Ocean.
The Indian navy, air force and coast guard are also now involved after a request from the Malaysian government.
Indian naval spokesman DK Sharma said on Friday that six ships and five aircraft were scouring the Andaman Sea.
Malaysian authorities later said that India’s Eastern Naval Command was to search an area of sea 3,500 sq miles off the Chennai coast.
China said on Friday it was sending a patrol ship to the Malacca Strait, west of Malaysia, after a fruitless search in the Gulf in Thailand.
The official Xinhua news agency said experts and officials had met on Friday and “analyzed new information”, but did not give details.
Some 153 of the passengers on board the plane were Chinese, and Beijing has been pressing Malaysia to intensify its search.
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US surveillance teams have been sent to the Indian Ocean to help search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, after claims emerged that it may have flown for longer than investigators had thought.
Unnamed officials said flight MH370 sent signals to satellites for up to five hours after its apparent disappearance.
However, investigators stressed that the information was not conclusive.
Rescuers have so far failed to find any trace of flight MH370, which vanished last Saturday with 239 people on board.
The plane, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, last made contact with air-traffic control over the South China Sea to the east of Malaysia.
US surveillance teams have been sent to the Indian Ocean to help search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane
The US, which is one of a number of countries helping in the search for the plane, has sent a navy destroyer and a sophisticated surveillance aircraft to the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles west of Malaysia.
The Indian navy, air force and coast guard are also now assisting after a request for help from the Malaysian government.
Several US media reports on Thursday cited unnamed officials as saying that the Boeing 777 was “pinging” satellites for hours after its last contact with air-traffic controllers.
That led searchers to believe the plane could have flown more than 1,000 miles beyond its last confirmed radar sighting.
White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed that US teams were shifting their focus to the Indian Ocean because of “new information”, but he gave no further details.
Some 153 of the passengers on board the Malaysia Airlines plane were Chinese, and Beijing has been putting pressure on Malaysia to intensify its search.
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Malaysia’s civil aviation chief has said the planes sent Thursday to check the spot where Chinese satellite images showed possible debris from the missing flight MH370 found nothing.
“There is nothing. We went there, there is nothing,” Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
Adding to the mystery, The Wall Street Journal reported that US investigators suspect the plane flew on for four hours once it lost contact with air traffic controllers, based on data from the plane’s engines that are automatically downloaded and transmitted to the ground as part of routine maintenance programs.
The report, based on two anonymous sources, raises questions as to why the Boeing 777 would have been flying without passive or active contact with the ground, and if anyone would have been in control during that time. US counterterrorism officials are considering whether a pilot or someone else on board intentionally disabled the jetliner’s transponders to avoid detection and divert it, the report said.
The hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane has been punctuated by false leads since it disappeared with 239 people aboard about an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early Saturday.
The plane was heading northeast over the Gulf of Thailand toward Vietnam when vanished.
Shortly after that it fell off commercial radar, but military authorities say it might have turned west and flown into the northern stretches of the Strait of Malacca based on unconfirmed traces seen on its air defense radar.
Dozens of ships and aircraft from 12 nations have been searching the Gulf of Thailand and the strait, but no trace has been found. The search area has grown to 35,800 square miles, or about the size of Portugal.
Malaysia found nothing at the spot where Chinese satellite images showed possible debris from the missing flight MH370 (photo PRC)
If the Wall Street Journal report is confirmed, the search area will have to significantly expand.
The Chinese satellite imagery showing possible debris was not far from where the last confirmed position of the plane was between Malaysia and Vietnam. The images and coordinates were posted on the website of China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
China’s state Xinhua News Agency said the images from around 11 a.m. on Sunday appear to show “three suspected floating objects” of varying sizes in a 12-mile radius, the largest about 79-by-72 feet off the southern tip of Vietnam.
Li Jiaxiang, chief of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said later China had yet to confirm any link between the suspected floating objects and the plane.
Pham Quy Tieu, deputy transport minister, told The Associated Press that the area had been “searched thoroughly” by forces from other countries over the past few days. Doan Huu Gia, chief of air search and rescue coordination center, said Malaysian and Singaporean aircraft were scheduled to visit the area again Thursday.
Malaysian authorities have come under fire for their handling of the search amid sometimes confusing and conflicting statements, including the time of the plane’s disappearance. Officials had also said that five passengers had checked into the flight but did not board the plane, and their luggage had been removed, but later they said this was not true.
Malaysia’s air force chief said Wednesday that an unidentified object appears on military radar records about 200 miles northwest of Penang, Malaysia, and experts are analyzing the data to determine whether the blip is the missing plane.
Authorities have not ruled out any possible cause, including mechanical failure, pilot error, sabotage and terrorism, and they are waiting to find any wreckage or debris to determine what went wrong.
Two US Federal Aviation Administration technical experts and a regional representative are in Kuala Lumpur as part of a National Transportation Safety Board team supporting the investigation.
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A Chinese government website has released satellite images of possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
The three images show what appear to be large, floating objects in the South China Sea. Previous sightings of possible debris have proved fruitless.
Malaysia Airlines plane went missing on Friday with 239 people on board.
The aircraft vanished about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur as it flew south of Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula.
No distress signal or message was sent.
China has released satellite images of possible debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (photo PRC)
The three images were taken on Sunday, a day after the plane disappeared, but were only released on Wednesday on the website of China’s State Administration for Science.
Map co-ordinates place the objects in the South China Sea east of Malaysia and off the southern tip of Vietnam.
China’s official Xinhua news agency says the largest of the objects measures about 24m x 22m (78ft x 72ft).
China has deployed several high-resolution satellites – controlled from the Xian Satellite Control Centre in northern China – to help search for the jet, the People’s Liberation Army said on Tuesday.
Earlier, Malaysian authorities revealed that the last communication from the jet suggested everything was normal on board.
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Malaysian authorities have unveiled the last communication received from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.
The message suggests everything was normal on board minutes before the plane went missing over the South China Sea.
Flight MH370 replied: “All right, roger that” to a radio message from Malaysian air control, authorities said.
The search has been widened to waters off both sides of the peninsula.
Malaysia’s air force chief has denied reports the plane was tracked to the Malacca Strait in the west.
The China-bound plane went missing on Saturday with 239 people on board.
The plane vanished about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, as it flew over the South China Sea, south of Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula. No distress signal or message was sent.
Malaysian authorities revealed the plane’s last communication at a news conference held in Beijing for relatives of the 154 Chinese who are among the missing passengers.
Malaysian authorities have unveiled the last communication received from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane
As the plane reached the boundary between Malaysian and Vietnamese airspace, the Malaysian air control announced it was handing over to Ho Chi Minh City Control.
Minutes later, all contact with Flight MH370 was lost.
China’s foreign ministry said there was “too much confusion” regarding the information released about the plane’s flight path.
“It is very hard for us to decide whether a given piece of information is accurate,” spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing.
Earlier on Wednesday, Malaysia’s air force chief Rodzali Daud denied remarks attributed to him in local media that flight was tracked by military radar to the Malacca Strait, far west of its planned route.
Gen. Rodzali Daud said he “did not make any such statements”, but the air force had “not ruled out the possibility of an air turn-back”.
Early search efforts focused on waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.
The search was later extended to the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea, off Malaysia’s west coast, amid reports that the plane could have turned back.
Operations are now covering some 27,000 square nautical miles.
Malaysian authorities on Wednesday requested assistance from India in searching the Andaman Sea, north of the Malacca Strait.
Vietnam has confirmed an investigation into a possible sighting of the plane has so far yielded no results.
Vietnam’s air traffic management earlier said it had received an email from a New Zealander working in one of the oil rigs off Vung Tau.
“He said he spotted a burning [object] at that location, some 300 km [200 miles] southeast of Vung Tau,” deputy general director Doan Huu Gia said.
Officials still do not know what went wrong with the aircraft, and several leads pursued so far have proven not to be linked to the plane.
According to new reports, confusion over missing Malaysia Airlines plane’s last known location has deepened.
Malaysia’s air force chief has denied reports that the plane was tracked to the Malacca Strait in the west.
Now, search teams are scouring waters off both sides of the Malaysian peninsula.
Vietnam has dispatched a plane to investigate an eyewitness report of a possible object burning in the sky east of Vietnam.
Flight MH370 went missing on Saturday. It had 239 people on board.
Authorities have been searching for the plane, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, for the past five days.
Earlier this week, Malaysia widened the search for the missing plane amid conflicting reports on its last known position.
The Malaysian authorities initially said flight MH370 disappeared about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, as it flew over the South China Sea, south of Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula. No distress signal or message was sent.
Search teams are scouring waters off both sides of the Malaysian peninsula, amid confusion over missing jet’s last known location (photo AP)
Early search efforts focused on waters between Malaysia and Vietnam.
The search was later extended to the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea, off Malaysia’s west coast, amid reports that the plane could have turned back.
On Wednesday, Malaysia’s air force chief Rodzali Daud denied remarks attributed to him in local media that a missing Malaysia Airlines plane was tracked by military radar to the Malacca Strait, far west of its planned route.
Gen. Rodzali Daud said he “did not make any such statements”, but the air force had “not ruled out the possibility of an air turn-back”.
On Wednesday, authorities also began searching the Andaman Sea, north of the Malacca Strait.
“We are not going to leave any chance. We have to look at every possibility,” Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told AFP news agency, without indicating why the search was expanded north.
Malaysia had requested assistance from India in searching areas near the Andaman Sea, India’s foreign ministry said.
Meanwhile, Vietnam said it had deployed aircraft to investigate a possible sighting of the plane.
Doan Huu Gia, deputy general director of Vietnam’s air traffic management, said: “We received an email from a New Zealander who works on one of the oil rigs off Vung Tau.
“He said he spotted a burning [object] at that location, some 300 km southeast of Vung Tau.”
Officials still do not know what went wrong with the aircraft, and several leads pursued so far have proven not to be linked to the plane.
At least 40 ships and 34 aircraft from several different countries are taking part in the search for the plane.
Two-thirds of the passengers on board the plane were Chinese. Some were from a range of other Asian countries, North America or Europe.
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According to military radars, the missing Malaysia Airlines plane turned west, away from its planned route, before vanishing, Malaysia’s air force says.
Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing on Saturday, after taking off with 239 people on board.
The international search for any wreckage has been widened.
The missing Malaysia Airlines plane turned west, away from its planned route, before vanishing
Earlier, it emerged two men travelling on stolen passports on board the plane were Iranians with no apparent links to terrorist groups, officials said.
One of the men is believed to have been migrating to Germany.
The Malaysian authorities initially said flight MH370 disappeared about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), as it flew over the South China Sea, south of Vietnam’s Ca Mau peninsula.
No distress signal or message was sent, but it is believed the plane attempted to turn back, perhaps towards Kuala Lumpur.
Officials still do not know what went wrong with the aircraft.
None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the South China Sea or Malacca Strait so far have proved to be linked to the disappearance.
Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese. Others were from various Asian countries, North America or Europe.
Relatives have expressed frustration at the lack of information about the plane’s fate.
At least 40 ships and 34 aircraft are taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, New Zealand and the United States of America are assisting.
The search is being conducted on both sides of the Malay Peninsula.
The area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles (57 miles) from where the plane disappeared – over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam – to 100 nautical miles.
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Malaysian police named one of the two men who travelled on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane on a stolen passport as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 18, and said he was probably migrating to Germany.
Interpol identified the other man as Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29.
Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza have been identified as the two men travelling on stolen passports on MH370 flight
Experts have said the presence of two people with stolen passports on a plane was a breach of security, but one that is relatively common in a region regarded as a hub for illegal migration.
Malaysian police say the younger Iranian was “not likely to be a member of a terrorist group”, adding that the authorities were in contact with his mother in Germany, who had been expecting her son to arrive in Frankfurt.
Interpol says the two men travelled from Qatar’s capital Doha on their Iranian passports, and switched to stolen Italian and Austrian passports to board the Malaysia Airlines flight.
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One of the persons travelling on a stolen passport on missing Malaysia Airlines jet was a young Iranian who is not believed to have terrorist links, Malaysian police say.
Police say the 19-year-old – named as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad – was probably migrating to Germany.
Investigations are continuing into a second man using stolen documents.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing went missing on Saturday, after taking off with 239 on board. The search has been widened.
Experts have said the presence of two people with stolen passports on a plane was a breach of security, but is relatively common in a region regarded as a hub for illegal migration.
Malaysia’s police chief Inspector Gen Khalid Abu Bakar said the young Iranian was “not likely to be a member of a terrorist group”, adding that the authorities were in contact with his mother in Germany, who had been expecting her son to arrive in Frankfurt.
He says the friend and another Iranian, also using a stolen passport, stayed with him before taking the Malaysia Airlines flight, and that they had hoped to settle in Europe.
One of the persons travelling on a stolen passport on missing Malaysia Airlines jet was a young Iranian who is not believed to have terrorist links
Reports from Thailand suggest that the tickets of the two men, routing them to Amsterdam via Beijing, had been bought through a Thai travel agent and an Iranian middleman.
Officials say they still have no idea what went wrong with the aircraft.
None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the water so far have proved to be linked to the disappearance.
Four areas of investigation were focused on the possibility of human agency, the police chief said: hijacking, sabotage, psychological problems or personal problems with passengers or crew.
The passengers on the flight were of 14 different nationalities. Two-thirds were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.
At least 40 ships and 34 aircraft are taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
Search teams from Australia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, New Zealand and the United States of America are assisting.
Malaysian civil aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said the search was being conducted “on both sides” of the peninsula.
The area has been expanded from 50 nautical miles from where the plane had disappeared – over waters between Malaysia and Vietnam – to 100 nautical miles (115 miles).
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Malaysian authorities have been urged by China to “step up its efforts” in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared on Saturday.
Most of the passengers on board of flight MH370 were Chinese nationals.
Nearly three days after the aircraft went missing, an international effort has still not found the plane’s wreckage.
None of the debris and oil slicks spotted in the water so far have proven to be linked to the disappearance.
Flight MH370 vanished from radar almost three days ago en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, with 239 people on board.
Relatives of the missing passengers have been told to prepare for the worst.
China said the Malaysian authorities needed to “step up their efforts” to find the missing airliner, which had more than 150 Chinese nationals on board.
“We … have a responsibility to demand and urge the Malaysian side to step i[ search efforts, start an investigation as soon as possible and provide relevant information to China correctly and in a timely manner,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.
Earlier, the Global Times, a prominent Communist Party newspaper, issued a sharply worded editorial arguing there were “loopholes” in the work of Malaysian airlines and security authorities, noting that “until yesterday [Sunday], the Malaysian government could not even ensure accurate information about the [plane’s] passengers”.
The Malaysian authorities are attempting to address Chinese concerns – they have reissued a pledge to fly worried family members to Kuala Lumpur so they can be closer to the search efforts, our correspondent adds.
But one victim’s relative – Guo Qishun, whose son-in-law was on the plane – said he did not see the point of flying to Malaysia.
“We don’t want to go to Malaysia now. There is no result from the search operation yet. If we go to Malaysia, we can do nothing but wait, just like what we are doing in Beijing now. If we go to Malaysia, who can we rely on? Most of us don’t speak English,” he told the Associated Press news agency.
Malaysian authorities have identified one of the two men travelling on the missing plane on stolen passports.
Flight MH370 vanished from radar almost three days ago en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur
Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said they could not reveal his identity, but confirmed the man was a non-Malaysian.
Malaysia’s acting transport minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, said all of the relevant information concerning those two passengers had now been passed on to the various national intelligence agencies which were investigating the matter.
International police agency Interpol has confirmed the passengers were travelling with Italian and Austrian passports stolen in Thailand years ago.
The search area has been widened to include waters in the Strait of Malacca.
Commander William Marks from the US Seventh Fleet, which is taking part in the search, says he expects the plane’s flight recorders to be floating in the water.
“In calm seas, if there were a soccer ball [football] or a basketball floating in the water, the radar could pick it up. They [flight recorders] typically have a radio beacon and so for example our P3 [radar] – if they are flying within a certain range of that – will pick up that radio beacon. We have not yet picked up anything, but that’s typically what those black boxes contain.”
There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
US Navy officials earlier said their aircraft had not seen any debris associated with commercial aircraft wreckage.
Flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing at 00:41 local time on Saturday. But radio contact was lost at 01:30, somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam.
Officials say they still have no idea what went wrong.
Malaysian military officials said on Sunday they were widening the search area because of indications the plane, a Boeing 777-200ER, may have turned back from its scheduled route shortly before vanishing from radar screens.
Investigators are looking at all angles, including a possible terror attack. Counter-terrorism agencies and the FBI are involved in the operation.
Five passengers booked on the flight did not board, and their luggage was consequently removed.
The passengers on the flight were of 14 different nationalities. Two-thirds were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.
Malaysia Airlines is the country’s national carrier, flying nearly 37,000 passengers daily to some 80 destinations worldwide.
On Monday, shares in Malaysia Airlines fell 18% to a record low.
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One of the most alarming pieces of information to come out of Malaysia Airlines plane mystery is how easy it may be to use a stolen passport to board an international flight.
Two passengers using passports on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight were recorded in Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database, the international police organization confirmed on Sunday.
Vietnam’s navy planes have spotted possible debris of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared almost two days ago.
Officials said it was too dark to be certain the objects were from Flight MH370, which had 239 people on board.
A multinational team is searching for wreckage and ships will try to confirm the find after dawn.
Investigators are also checking CCTV footage of two passengers who were travelling on stolen passports.
There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search for the missing plane in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia.
Other teams are investigating the identities of some of the people onboard.
Malaysia’s civil aviation chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, said five passengers booked on the flight did not board and their luggage was consequently removed.
It has also been confirmed that two passengers were travelling on stolen passports.
The passengers – travelling with Italian and Austrian passports that had been stolen in Thailand – purchased their plane tickets at the same time, and were both booked on the same onward flight from Beijing to Europe on Saturday.
Luigi Maraldi’s passport went missing in Thailand last year and was reported shortly thereafter (photo EPA)
Both had purchased their tickets from China Southern Airlines, which shared the flight with Malaysia Airlines, and they had consecutive ticket numbers.
Both tickets were bought at identical prices in Thai currency, according to China’s official e-ticket verification system.
European authorities on Saturday confirmed the names and nationalities of the two stolen passports: One was an Italian-issued document bearing the name Luigi Maraldi, the other Austrian under the name Christian Kozel.
A telephone operator on a China-based KLM hotline on Sunday confirmed to Reuters “Luigi Maraldi” and “Christian Kozel” were both booked to leave Beijing on a KLM flight to Amsterdam on March 8.
“Luigi Maraldi” was then to fly to Copenhagen on KLM on March 8, and “Christian Kozel” to Frankfurt on March 8. She said the pair booked the tickets through China Southern Airlines so she had no information on where they bought them.
“Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol databases,” the Secretary General of international police agency Interpol, Ronald Noble, said in a statement.
Ronald Noble said no checks of Interpol’s database had been made for either passport between the time they were stolen and the departure of the flight, and expressed frustration that few of Interpol’s 190 member countries “systematically” search the database.
Given their travel itinerary, it’s just as possible that the misidentified flyers were drug mules as terrorists.
The passport of the Italian man was stolen last year. Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Weiss said the passport of the Austrian man was stolen two years ago. Both documents went missing in Thailand and were reported shortly thereafter, according to Interpol.
Passports reported lost or stolen are invalidated and, technically, can no longer be used for travel – yet individuals, including members of terrorist organizations, still manage to get across international borders with falsified travel documents.
Such documents are often obtained on the black market and put to use after a photograph swap. Investigations into the operations of terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda showed that operatives traveled with falsified travel documents.
Malaysia’s Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said all angles were being examined in the search for the what happened, but he added: “The main thing here for me and for the families concerned is that we find the aircraft.”
The passengers on the flight were of 14 different nationalities. Two-thirds were from China, while others were from elsewhere in Asia, North America and Europe.
Malaysia Airlines is the country’s national carrier, and one of Asia’s largest fleets, flying nearly 37,000 passengers daily to some 80 destinations worldwide.
Correspondents say the route between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing has become more and more popular as Malaysia and China increase trade.
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New details have emerged about some of 227 passengers and 12 crew on board Malaysia Airlines’ Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing that has been missing since early Saturday.
There were 14 different nationalities on the Boeing 777 that mysteriously vanished south of Vietnam without sending a distress call.
The vast majority – 153 people – were Chinese citizens, according to the Malaysia Airlines passenger manifest.
Among them was a 19-member group of prominent artists, who were returning home after an exhibition in the Malaysian capital.
Everyone in the group, led by Hou Bo, was “very famous in China”, exhibition organiser Daniel Liau was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.
Some were China’s leading calligraphy artists, he added.
Another eight Chinese nationals as well as 12 Malaysians were employees of America’s Freescale Semiconductor company.
It is also known that five children – aged two to four – were on board the plane: three Chinese and two Americans.
There were 14 different nationalities on Malaysia Airlines flight that mysteriously vanished south of Vietnam
The third American was identified as Philip Wood – a 51-year-old IBM employee from Texas.
The oldest person on the board the plane was 79.
The pilot, who led the 12-member crew, was named by Malaysia Airlines as Zaharie Ahmad Shah.
Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, joined the carrier in 1981 and had 18,365 hours of flight experience.
But, perhaps, the most puzzling questions remain over the true identities of two people registered as Austria’s Christian Kozel and Luigi Maraldi of Italy.
The foreign ministries in Vienna and Rome later said the two men were not in fact on the plane.
It is understood that their passports have either been stolen or lost in Thailand in recent years.
Malaysian officials say international counter-terrorism agencies from a number of countries have joined an investigation and all angles are now being examined.
Manifest for Flight MH370
- 153 Chinese
- 38 Malaysians
- 7 Indonesians
- 6 Australians
- 5 Indians
- 4 French
- 3 Americans
- 2 each from New Zealand, Ukraine and Canada
- One each from Russia, Taiwan, Italy, Netherlands and Austria (although both Italy and Austria deny any of their nationals were onboard)
Source: Malaysia Airlines
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