MH370 Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 remains missing for the 16th day today but a new lead emerged yesterday, lending credence to the Australian-led search for the plane in the southern Indian Ocean.
Yesterday, China released satellite images of a 22.5 metre x 13 metre object, believed to be possible debris from MH370 in the Indian Ocean and has began to mobilise assets to search in the area.
It came just two days after Australian authorities announced a similar find based on satellite images. The two discoveries are only 120km apart at a location some 2,500km southwest of Perth in Western Australia.
Below are updates and the latest coverage from various sources and news agencies:
Amsa ends search, to resume tomorrow
9.35pm : The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) says it has concluded its search for today.
In a statement, it says eight aircraft and an Australian naval vessel covered an area of 59,000 square kilometres.
"There were no sightings of significance," it adds.
The search will resume tomorrow with two Chinese and one Japanese aircraft joining the effort.
French image 'fuzzy and very unclear'
8.05pm: A Malaysian official involved in the search mission said the French image was captured Friday and was about 930 kilometers north from where the Chinese and Australian objects were seen, the Associated Press reports.
The official, who declined to be named because he isn't authorized to speak to the media, said one of the objects was estimated to be about the same size as an object captured Tuesday by the Chinese satellite that appeared to be 22 meters by 13 meters.
However, according to the news agency, the official said the French satellite image was fuzzy and very unclear, making it difficult to determine the exact dimensions.
Andrea Hayward-Maher, a spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa), confirmed that Australia had received the images, but had no further details.
No press briefings
5.35pm: For the first time, there is no press briefing on the status of the MH370 search operations today.
However, here are some of the highlights from a statement sent by the Transport Ministry:
- The high-level team, comprising Malaysian ministry officials and even a senior Boeing 777 pilot, held a six-hour long briefing with family members of MH370 passengers in Beijing. This is the third of such sessions.
5.12pm: The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) has requested a cargo manifest for Flight MH370 from Malaysia Airlines (MAS), reports the BBC .
The request comes after the search operation yesterday found pallets in the Indian Ocean, often used to support goods in cargo.
Father to Pakatan: Stop using MH370 as campaign fodder
5pm: Selamat Omar, 60, whose son Mohd Khairul Amri was onboard Flight MH370, reportedly criticises the opposition for highlighting the tragedy in the Kajang by-election.
"It is unfortunate that they (opposition) are using the issue as a campaign material when the matter involves real lives," Selamat, who is Bera Umno committee member, is quoted saying by the New Straits Times .
Today is polling day for the Kajang by-election. Read our live report here .
' MH370 probe not under act of terrorism'
4.20pm: Police are refusing to confirm new information that has surfaced about an alleged phone call pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah received in the cockpit of Flight MH370 shortly before take-off on March 8.
"The inspector-general of police has never issued any public statement that categorically places the MH370 investigation under an act of terrorism," Asmawati Ahmad, the Bukit Aman chief of the Inspector-General of Police Secretariat says in The Star .
"Please be advised that the police take no responsibility over the dissemination of such information, which originates from unnamed and unverified sources," she adds.
UK-based Daily Mail today claims Zaharie had received a call from a woman who had registered the phone's sim using a false identity.
Meanwhile, the New Straits Times reports that Inspector-General Police Khalid Abu Bakar dismisses the latest call claim as "mere speculation".
"If the portal ( Daily Mail ) can provide the caller's number, that will help.
"If not, as I said, it is a mere speculation," he reportedly says.
He previously responded similarly when the allegation first emerged on March 21 in UK-based The Sun that claimed Zaharie had made the call out from the plane before taking off on the flight.
However the Daily Mail 's report today claims the opposite, saying the call was made to him.
Pollster: MH370 overshadows Kajang polls
3pm: According to pollster Ilham Centre, the Kajang by-election campaign was slow to heat up due to, in part, the ongoing search efforts to locate missing MAS Flight MH370.
Executive chairperson Muhamad Hisommudin Bakar says the people were already in a sombre mood after the Pakatan Rakyat’s ‘Kajang Move’ was “broken” by the appellate court’s conviction of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim for Sodomy.
This, he asserts, was followed by the MH370 crisis, which shifted the people’s and Kajang voters’ attention away from the campaign.
“The campaign gloom is enforced even more by minimal media coverage, be it by mainstream media or Internet portals, on this by-election,” he says in a statement.
Today is polling day for the Kajang by-election. Read our live report here .
Poor visibility hampers search
2.44pm: The Guardian reports that poor visibility has hampered search efforts at the Southern Indian Ocean.
2.29pm: All aircraft involved in the day's search for possible MH370 debris have now departed Perth, says Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa).
Five aircraft are currently at the search area.
More recent files deleted from pilot's hard drive
2.17pm: US investigators analysing the hard drive for missing MH370 pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's home-assembled flight simulator finds that more files had been deleted even after Feb 3, CNN reports, quoting US law enforcement officials.
Its report states that it unsure if Malaysian authorities were aware of more files having been deleted, as they had only stated files were deleted on Feb 3.
“The type of software used for flight simulation takes up a lot of room in hard drives and investigators believe that could be one reason for deletion of files.
However, a report by Reuters this morning states that its “unlikely” Zaharie erased the files for technical reasons, “given the large amount of cheap memory loaded onto modern computers”.
The CNN report also states: “It's possible too that some damage could have been done during the first examinations done by Malaysian investigators.”
However, it stresses that investigators are focussing on the pilots, including co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, due to “lack of any other information”, but to date there is no proof the duo is responsible for the plane’s disappearance.
Wood, strapping belts could come from ship
Foreign media 'looks down' on M'sia's efforts
1.15pm: Umno-linked Berita Harian , in a vox pop report today, accuses the foreign media of having ill intentions towards Malaysia and is out to confuse the global community.
"They (foreign media) look down on our efforts to disseminate information through proper channels and only care about benefiting from this without the consideration of journalistic ethics," it quotes a civil servant as saying.
"They surely know the history of the Air France incident which also took a long time (to find the plane) but it is as if they are jealous of Malaysia's unity as a result of this incident," another person, a housewife, is quoted saying in the report.
Foreign involvement good for M'sia
12.38pm: Foreign involvement in the MH370 search and rescue operation brings positive impact on Malaysia as it involves the sharing of expertise and the use of advanced technologies, Bernama reports.
Former Criminal Investigation Department (CID) director Zaman Khan Rahim Khan says Malaysia's move to collaborate with other countries is good as we do not have the experience to handle such a crisis.
"Not to mention this is the first time Malaysia has lost an aircraft for more than 10 days.
"This incident can't be handled individually due to constraints in terms of ability and experience.
"As such, the involvement of developed countries such as the US, Australia and China can help as they have leading edge technologies," he tells the national news agency.
MH370 disappearance 'unprecendented'
12.35pm: AirAsia group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes says Flight MH370's disappearance is "unprecedented", and praises Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein handling of the daily press briefings.
In a tweet, he says: "Seen lots in the aviation industry in my 12 years. This is unprecedented. @HishammuddinH2O must be given praise for his untiring efforts."
"After some unclear statements, @HishammuddinH2O has taken control, been transparent and ever present. One voice. Transparent. Clear. Honest," he says in a second Twitter posting.
HishammuddinH2O is the Hishammuddin’s Twitter handle.
Among those to have retweets Fernandes' tweet is Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
'High likelihood' debris from MH370, says expert
12.30pm: Aviation consultant Neil Hansford is quoted by News.com.au as saying the objected captured by China's satellite yesterday indicates a "high likelihood" it is from an aircraft.
He adds it may be a fuselage.
"It says to me that there's a high likelihood of it being from an aircraft," says Hansford who heads Strategic Aviation Solution.
He adds China's find validated the satellite images released by Australia on Thursday.
Four civil planes in search area
12.10pm: Amsa reports that there are currently four civil aircraft in the search area, while three more are on the way.
One sighted object a wooden pallet
12pm: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott comments on the "objects of interest" find, saying authorities are attempting to retrieve them.
"Yesterday one of our civilian search aircraft got visuals on a number of objects in the Australia search zone.
"(There were) a number of small objects, fairly close together within the Australian search zone, including as I understand it a wooden pallet.
"Before we can be too specific about what it might be we need to recover some of this material," he is quoted as saying by UK-based The Guardian .
'Further attempts' to find objects
10am: Amsa says that search teams will continue to seek out several "objects of interest" that were identified by air observers yesterday.
"Further attempts will be made today to establish whether the objects sighted are related to MH370," it says.
Amsa adds using drift modelling calculations based on latest Chinese satellite images, it has split the search area into two with each having a size of 59,000 square kilometres.
Read Amsa's statement here .
'Increasing hope' in finding debris
9.45am: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says there is "increasing hope" in possibly finding the wreckage of MH370 in the Indian Ocean following Chinese satellite images reinforcing those released by his country on Thursday.
“It’s still too early to be definite, but obviously we have now had a number of very credible leads and there is increasing hope - no more than hope, no more than hope - that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft," he is quoted saying by AFP .
With more aircraft joining the search, Abbott adds he is more confident of recovering whatever that was spotted by the satellites.
Two Chinese military aircrafts and two Japanese Orions are joining the search soon, which is already being conducted by Australian, New Zealand and US aircraft since Thursday.
Read the full story here .
Zaharie's family hurt by allegations
9am: While attention is now focused on the search in the Indian Ocean, unsubstantiated allegations made against pilot Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, that he could have hijacked the plane, is causing pain to his family.
"The speculation about my dad is torturing the family," Zaharie's daughter Aishah, had confided in a friend, according to a Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) report.
Meanwhile, another family friend, Mohammed Ghouse, reportedly says: ''It's agonising for the family, and the media is not helping out at all."
The SMH report says Zaharie's family had last week released a video tribute to him, describing the man as someone who is ''loving, reflective, generous, cool, sporting, intelligent and supportive''.
See the video here .
Norwegian ship leaves search area
8.50am: The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) states that today’s search includes eight aircraft, and 20 state emergency volunteers (SES) from Western Australia as air observers.
In a tweet, it says that the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) vessel HMS Success is also searching for possible MH370 debris, as is two civil aircraft and US Navy’s P8 Poseidon, which are en route to the search area.
It also posts, however, that Norwegian Merchant ship, the Höegh St Petersburg, is released from the search.
The car-carrier was one of the first vessels to arrive at the site, after it was diverted from its Madagascar-Melbourne route to aid seach efforts.
“Amsa thanks Höegh for valuable assistance and efforts,” the Twitter posting reads.
Police chief: Don't slander
8.45am: Despite authorities insisting the media not speculate on MH370, Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar today concedes such speculations may help with investigations.
"We monitor all speculations because we feel that from these speculations, it could more or less assist in investigations," he is quoted as saying in a Mingguan Malaysia interview published today.
However, he cautions the public to differentiate between speculations and facts.
Asked if police will take action again speculators, he says: "If it is just speculation, we do not think it is enough to take action unless it becomes slander".
Expert: Image looks like aircraft wing
8.30am: Experts say the high-definition satellite image captured by Gaofen-1 and released by China’s State Administration of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence (Sastind) was "consistent" with an aircraft wing.
Dr John Blaxland, a senior fellow from Australian National University (ANU) is quoted by China's news agency Xinhua as saying that if the measurement of the object was correct, it was similar to a Boeing 777 wing.
"It's similar shaped, but if the measurements (are correct), then this is slightly wider," he says.
Only US has 6km-deep sonar technology
1.46am: Malaysian geostrategist Azmi Hassan says he believes sonar technology could help find missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 if the aircraft has crashed in the Indian Ocean.
He says only the United States has such technology whereby sunken objects could be detected as far as 6,000 metres below the sea surface.
"This sonar technology can zoom in on what type of object is on the seabed. It is the only kind that can trace a black box of a plane that has stopped emitting signals," he says when interviewed on BernamaTV last nght.
He adds that a jetliner's blackbox can withstand temperatures up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, severe impact and would be able to still continue emitting signals even if it sank up to 6,000 metres in oceans.
It has been reported that the black box of a missing plane will only emit signals at the most for 30 days, which means there is just 14 days left.
Background:
- The Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200ER aircraft went missing not long after taking off from KL International Airport in the early hours of March 8, with 12 crew members and 227 passengers.
