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| An Indonesian Air Force officer draws a flight pattern flown earlier in a search operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, during a post-mission briefing at Suwondo air base in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Thursday, March 13, 2014. The hunt for the missing jetliner has been punctuated by false leads since it disappeared with 239 people aboard about an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early Saturday. |
KUALA LUMPUR,
Malaysia (AP) -- An oil slick on the sea. A purported wrong turn to
the west seen on military radar. Questionable satellite photos.
Passengers boarding with stolen passports.
After six days, what seemed like potential clues to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 have all led nowhere.
"This
situation is unprecedented. MH370 went completely silent over the open
ocean," said acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. "This is a
crisis situation. It is a very complex operation, and it is not
obviously easy. We are devoting all our energies to the task at hand."
On
Thursday, Malaysian authorities expanded their search westward toward
India, saying the aircraft with 239 people aboard may have flown for
several hours after its last contact with the ground shortly after
takeoff early Saturday from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.
A
U.S. official on Thursday said the plane was sending signals to a
satellite for four hours after the aircraft went missing, an indication
that it was still flying. The jet had enough fuel to reach deep into the
Indian Ocean.
That led searchers to believe
the plane could have flown more than 1,000 miles beyond its last
confirmed sighting on radar, the official said.
The
official said the plane wasn't transmitting data to the satellite, but
sending out a signal to establish contact. Boeing offers a satellite
service that can receive a stream of data during flight on how the
aircraft is functioning.
The official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak
publicly, said Malaysia Airlines didn't subscribe to that service, but
the system was automatically pinging the satellite anyway.
Asked
if it were possible that the plane kept flying for several hours,
Hishammuddin said: "Of course. We can't rule anything out. This is why
we have extended the search. We are expanding our search into the
Andaman Sea." The sea is northwest of the Malay Peninsula.
He
said Malaysia was asking for radar data from India and other
neighboring countries to see if they can trace it flying northwest.
India says its navy, air force and coast guard will search for the plane
in the south Andaman Sea.
"Because of new
information, we may be part of an effort to open a new search area in
the Indian Ocean," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, declining to
offer additional details about that information or the new area.
The U.S. Navy 7th Fleet said it is moving one of its ships, the USS Kidd, into the Strait of Malacca, west of Malaysia.
The
international search is methodically sweeping the ocean on both sides
of Malaysia. The total area being covered is about 35,800 square miles
(92,600 square kilometers) - about the size of Portugal.
Another
part of the hunt is in the South China Sea, where the aircraft was seen
on civilian radar flying northeast before vanishing without any
indication of technical problems. A similar-sized search is also being
conducted in the Strait of Malacca because of military radar sightings
that might indicate the plane turned in that direction after its last
contact, passing over the Malay Peninsula.
In
the latest disappointment, search planes failed to find any debris from
the Boeing 777 after they were sent Thursday to an area of the South
China Sea off the southern tip of Vietnam where satellite images
published on a Chinese government website reportedly showed three
suspected floating objects.
"There is nothing. We went there. There is nothing," Hishammuddin said.
Compounding
the frustration, he later said the Chinese Embassy had notified the
government the images
were released by mistake and did not show any
debris from the missing flight.
More than
two-thirds of those on Flight MH370 were from China, which has shown
impatience with the absence of any results. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang
said Thursday in Beijing he would like to see better coordination among
countries in the search.
The passengers'
"families and friends are burning with anxiety. The Chinese government
and Chinese people are all deeply concerned about their safety," he said
at the close of the annual session of the country's legislature. "As
long as there is a glimmer of hope, we will not stop searching for the
plane."
He said China had eight ships and 10 satellites searching for the plane.
Malaysia
has been criticized for its handling of the search, in part because it
took several days to fully explain why it couldn't say whether the plane
had turned back. Officials say they are not hiding anything and are
searching areas where the plane is most likely to be, while trying to
establish its actual location.
Besides the
Chinese satellite photos and the so-far fruitless search based on the
possible sighting on military radar, there have been other developments
in the aviation mystery that have failed to lead to finding the plane or
the cause of its disappearance:
- Oil slicks seen Saturday were found to have nothing to do with the jetliner.
- A yellow object spotted by a search plane turned out to be ordinary sea trash.
-
Officials initially said four or five passengers checked in for the
flight but did not board, fueling speculation about terrorism. Officials
later said some people with reservations never checked in and were
simply replaced by standby passengers, and no baggage was removed.
-
Officials said two men, later identified as Iranians, boarded the plane
with stolen passports. It was later reported that they were unlikely to
be linked to terrorist groups.
Investigators have not ruled out any possible cause for the plane's disappearance.
Experts
say a massive failure knocking out electrical systems, while unlikely,
could explain why the transponders were not working. Another possibility
is that the pilot, or a passenger, likely one with some technical
knowledge, switched off the transponders in the hope of flying
undetected.
"There is no real precedent for a situation like this. The plane just vanished," Hishammuddin said.
Experts
say that if the plane crashed into the ocean, some debris should be
floating even if most of the jet is submerged. Past experience shows
that finding the wreckage can take weeks or even longer, especially if
the location of the plane is in doubt.
