The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines
(MAS) Flight MH370 enters the 19th day today, resuming in the south
Indian Ocean, after being hampered by bad weather all of yesterday.
On
Monday, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announced that the plane went
down in the Indian Ocean, based on calculations by British satellite
company Inmarsat.
Following this, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein declared yesterday that searches in the northern corridor, as well as in the northern tip of the southern corridor, near Indonesia, have been called off.
This means search and recovery operations are now exclusively being carried out at the south Indian Ocean, led by Australia, where attempts are being made to relocate and retrieve several objects, possibly MH370 debris, spotted on Monday.
Below are updates and the latest coverage from various sources and news agencies:
Conspiracy theories Wiki
11pm: A Wikipedia entry on conspiracy theories regarding MH370's disappearance is slowly expanding, but there are also efforts to delete the entry altogether.
The
theories ranges from early speculations to the outright bizzare -
theories about Illuminati involvement, UFOs and pop-star Shakira.
The entry was created on March 25 and efforts are underway to remove it.
PM's wife expresses sympathy
8.46pm: Prime minister's wife Rosmah Mansor has expressed profound sympathy and conveyed her condolences to family members, friends and acquaintances of the MH370 passengers and crew.
In a statement today, reports Bernama, she called on all family members of the passengers and crew to be strong in accepting the will of God.
"I have received telephone calls from several wives of world leaders to express sympathy over the tragedy.
"I thanked them for their concerns and it shows Malaysia has many friends in such times of need," she is quoted as saying.
Iranians with stolen passports
"We have investigated and came to this conclusion," he told the Parliament today.
'Sealed evidence that can't be revealed'
7.05pm: Emotions spill over once more over in Beijing at a briefing by Malaysian officials to families of MH370 passengers, who are told that there is 'sealed evidence' that cannot be revealed.
According to Singapore’s The Straits Times, it includes air traffic control radio transcripts, radar data and airport security recordings.
It adds the families continue to pressure Malaysian officials for evidence which could convince them that the plane did indeed crash into the Indian Ocean and that their loved ones are dead.
"You expect us to accept a report you cannot defend?" one family member is quoted asking Malaysian envoy to China Iskandar Sarudin, who can only reply, "no comment".
The next-of-kin are also upset at the lack of caregivers tasked with helping them, when told there were only 50 due to problems finding volunteers, with one relation asking: "Two-thirds of MH370 passengers are Chinese but only 50 caregivers?"
They also asked how much the Malaysian government is paying for the UK satellite analysis, saying "you've been cheated," The Straits Times further reports.
More objects sighted
6.02pm: Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) reports that three objects have been sighted by search planes at the south Indian Ocean, two of which are likely to be ropes while the third is described as blue.
However, it says none have been relocated upon further passes.
5.45pm: The daily press briefing on the status of the ongoing search for MAS Flight MH370 begins. As usual, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein leads the session, now being held at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in the centre of Kuala Lumpur.
Here are some of the highlights:
5.20pm: Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri tells Parliament that the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) did not act to intercept MH370 when it was detected on the military radar off the Straits of Malacca on March 8 not long after it ceased communications with air traffic control, as it "assumed" that the flight was ordered to turn back by the control tower.
Read the full story here.
Minister denies missed meeting sparked protest
5pm: Foreign Affairs Minister Anifah Aman denies a media report claiming yesterday's protest in Beijing was sparked by Malaysia's envoy to China, Iskandar Sarudin, failing to keep an appointment with families of Flight MH370 passengers.
Read the full story here.
Search region geologically 'extremely active'
4.28pm: Search teams looking for MH370 are facing challenges ranging from huge waves to underwater volcanoes, says experts quoted by the AFP.
The report says that the region being searched is very windy with waves up to 15 metres during winter, and is also geologically “extremely active”.
“It's rugged, it's covered in faults, fine-scale gullies and ridges, there isn't a lot of sediment blanketing that part of the world because it's fresh (in geological terms),” says James Cook University underwater geologist Robin Beamen.
On the bright side, University of New South Wales oceanographer Erik van Sebille says the remoteness of the suspected crash site also means any large debris sighted is likely to have been part of the missing aircraft rather than unrelated flostsam.
Abbott moves motion of condolence in Parliament
4.05pm: Australian PM Tony Abbott today tables a motion in Parliament to express the government's condolences to grieving families.
"We mourn all those 239 passengers and crew. We especially mourn the six Australian citizens and one Australian resident who must be presumed dead and we grieve with their families and loved ones," he says.
Several of the family members are present to hear the motion.
Daily Mail floats fresh 'suicide' theory
4pm: After Telegraph, another British tabloid is pursuing the 'pilot suicide' theory by speculating that the plane was flown to its maximum altitude as part of the plot.
Citing an anonymous source, the Daily Mail claims that MH370 flew at 43,000 to 45,000 feet for 23 minutes, 11 minutes longer than oxygen supply in depressurised cabins.
It quotes an aerodynamics professor as saying that emergency air supply would not automatically kick in if the plane flew at 43,000 feet.
It also reports that investigators are probing the possibility that the pressurisation system was deliberately turned off, thereby jeopardising filtered cabin air.
Yesterday, Germany's Speigel Online posited the ghost plane theory—that an electrical fire caused the system to halt, knocking out all on board and leaving the aircraft to fly on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel.
Special equipment no use without wreckage
3.30pm: BBC reports that the US Navy has flown in "specialist underwater detection equipment" which will aid detection of the plane's flight recorder.
However,
it says that can be carried out when the wreckage is found, and even
then, it states it will still be several days before the ship carrying
the detectors will arrive at the search site.
BBC further warns that tomorrow's weather threatens to deteriorate once more, "with a cold front bringing thunderstorms and strong winds", and that this could further slow the progress of search efforts.
Chinese envoy meets PM
3pm: China’s news agency Xinhua reports that special envoy to Malaysia Zhang Yesui meets with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to discuss the search for the missing plane.
This comes as family members of Chinese national on board Flight MH370 protested in Beijing yesterday, unwilling to accept the Malaysian government’s announcement that the plane crashed into the south Indian Ocean and none survived, due to lack of any concrete evidence.
China's Foreign Ministry also reportedly requested for all relevant satellite data from Malaysia and British satellite company Inmarsat.
It is later reported by Reuters that he requests for "unremitting
efforts" on the search for the missing plane.
Meanwhile, Bernama reports that Indonesia, too, is sending a special envoy to hold an “intensive dialogue” with Malaysia.
It cites Antara news agency, which quotes Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa as saying: “We need clarification from the Malaysian authorities. We do not want the families to miss out on clear information”.
'Little can be done without debris'
2pm: Oceanographers have used data from drift models to construct a dynamic map of the sea in order to find where MH370 went down. But without debris, there is little they can do.
Time is also running out, Australia's leading scientific agency Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, or CSIRO's team leader David Griffin tells the Wall Street Journal.
“You can really only follow things with any certainty for a couple of weeks. We’re getting to the end now of the time when you can backtrack to the original location (of the crash),” Griffin says.
'Families shouldn't have been informed by text'
1.50pm: PKR vice-president Tian Chua says families should not have been informed that their loved ones in all certainty did not survive, via text message.
"I
urge Malaysian Airlines to choose a more comforting method to handle
the situation...After two weeks anxiously waiting for some good news,
receiving a text message with such news would have been very painful,"
he says in a statement.
He also urges media to not publish speculations accusing the pilot of suicide, fingering specifically the UK's Daily Telegraph.
MAS has defended contacting families via text message, saying that it was a "last" resort when it could not call or speak to the 1,000 family members to avoid them learning about it on the news.
Flags to be flown at half-mast
1.37pm: The sultan of Pahang ordered that the Pahang and Malaysian flags be flown at half-mast in the state for three days from today as a mark of respect over the MAS aircraft tragedy, Bernama reports.
The state Information Department says in a statement that the order was directed at all government departments and agencies and private sector firms.
Families opt to stay put, for now
12.30pm: Some families of MH370 passengers are opting not to go to Australia, despite MAS' offer to fly them out until the wreckage is found.
Indonesian news outlet Tempo reports that the family members of Indonesian passengers Indra Suria Tanurisman and Firman Chandra Siregar as holding on to belief their son is alive, opting to wait at home until there is physical evidence of a crash.
"At this moment, Firman's mother and myself still believe that our son is working with in China," Firman's father Krisman is quoted saying.
Firman's family is mulling legal action.
Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Chinese families, too, feel there is no point travelling to Perth until more concrete evidence is found.
PM Abbott: Search not open-ended
12.01pm: Another three Chinese ships have now joined merchant vessel Xue Long and Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) HMAS Success at the MH370 search site, along with five aircraft, reports The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa).
11.30am: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says that while there is no deadline set for the search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, the search is not endless.
"It's not absolutely open-ended, but it's not something we will lightly abandon," Abbott is quoted by dpa as saying.
Locators useless if pinger damaged
11.20am: While the US Navy is shipping its towed pinger locator to Australia to find MH370’s black box, its manufacturer tells Sydney Morning Herald that the device has limitations despite numerous past successes.
The
pinger locator is designed to search up to a depth of 6,000 metres, but
the Indian Ocean can be as deep as 7,000 metres in parts.
In addition, the device can only be used once the search area is narrowed down further, while the black box’s pinger have a battery life of some 30 days. MH370 went missing on March 8.
The pingers may have also been damaged upon impact, rendering the locators useless as it did in the Air France Flight 447, which crashed in 2009.
Pingers are attached to the black box and emits a sound when submerged in water, while the pinger locator is comprised of highly sensitive underwater microphones designed to find it.
11 days left before black box battery dies
11am: It has been 19 days since MAS Flight MH370 disappeared.
The
clock ticks as that leaves less than just 11 days for search teams to
find the plane before the black box battery runs out and it ceases to
emit 'pings'.
According to Australia's news.com.au, the black box emits one 'ping' per second for 30 days, which can be picked up by sonar and acoustic-locating equipment.
However, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has vowed that search for the missing plane will not stop even after the black box battery runs out after the 30-day mark.
He says there are other means investigators and search parties can employ to locate the black box.
China, US affirms support
10.20am: Both the Chinese president Xi Jinping and US president Barack Obama reaffirm their support towards the search for MH370, says Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
The New Straits Times reports that Muhyiddin met the two leaders at the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Hague, to express Malaysia’s appreciation for the two country’s contribution in the search efforts.
To
a question whether China is dissatisfied with Malaysia’s handling of
the crisis, Muhyiddin is quoted saying that Xi empathised with Malaysia
over the large scale of the SAR effort, and alluded to longstanding
diplomatic relations between Malaysia and China.
However, in apparent disatisfaction at the PM's announcement on Monday, Reuters had reported that China's Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng ‘immediately demanded’ all relevant satellite data from Malaysia.
The ministry is also seeking satellite data from British satellite company Inmarsat, to know exactly how the final conclusion was derived.
What are they searching for
10am: Another recap - On Monday, Australia announced spotting two objects in the search area - an orange rectangular object and a green or grey circular one.
Although it said it maintained aerial view of the objects as at yesterday, the search was called off for 24 hours yesterday due to rough weather.
The objects were located more than 2,000km west of Perth in what is described as one of the most remote corners of the globe.
However, Al Jazeera reporter Andrew Thomas, who was on board the Australian P3 Orion aircraft that spotted the reported debris, claimed that there were five objects.
How the Doppler Effect factors in
9.15am: To recap, investigators determined that MH370 had flown to the southern corridor by looking for subtle shifts in the radio frequency that the aircraft used to communicate with Inmarsat’s satellite.
The
shifts - caused by the Doppler Effect - is akin to a police siren that
sounds differently as the police car passes by. The same principle that
changes the sound of moving vehicle also applies to the radio frequency
of a moving aircraft.
By measuring these shifts and comparing it against what would have been expected if MH370 had turned north or south, investigators found a good match between the measurements and the expected radio frequencies of the southerly route.
This type of analysis has not been used to locate an aircraft before, and investigators tested the method with six other aircraft whose flight path were known to ensure that it works.
Read more here.
Final ping 'not by human interaction'
8.50am: British satellite operator Inmarsat says the final "partial ping", that is a digital handshake between MH370 and its satellite was not from human interaction.
It says investigators are investigating if the partial ping which originated from the aircraft at 9.15am Malaysian time on March 8 was "failed login" or the system "resetting itself".
"We're not looking at (the partial ping) as someone trying to turn on the communication system," Inmarsat senior vice-president Chris McLaughlin tells the Wall Street Journal.
Australia defends Malaysia
8am: Australian Minister of Defence David Johnston defends Malaysia’s handling of the MH370 crisis, saying that its critics have the benefit of hindsight.
"Look, this has been a tragedy that has come from nowhere, who would have anticipated anything like this, an aircraft just going off the radar?
"And
now we believe it’s about three and a half thousand kilometres away
from where it was supposed to be at its last point of identification –
and may I say – in one of the most outrageously remote parts of the
planet.
"I mean, there is just nothing down there…," he says in an interview with CNN yesterday.
He adds analyses on satellite data used to determine MH370’s location took time because the relevant data needs to be filtered from large amounts of other data, including those from other aircraft communicating with the satellite.
“I think they’ve achieved something that might be the beginning of something concrete. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
“As I say, when we pull something out of the ocean and someone says this is clearly a part of this aircraft, I think that will be a significant step,” he says.
A transcript of which is available from the Australian Ministry of Defence. Read the full transcript here.
Weather permits search
7am: The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) confirms that the search for objects sighted in the south Indian Ocean has resumed as weather conditions improves.
It says a total of 12 aircraft will be involved in searches covering 80,000 sq km.
Meanwhile, Australian vessel HMS Success and Chinese ice-breaker Xue Long are in the search area.
Background:
On
Monday, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announced that the plane went
down in the Indian Ocean, based on calculations by British satellite
company Inmarsat.Following this, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein declared yesterday that searches in the northern corridor, as well as in the northern tip of the southern corridor, near Indonesia, have been called off.
This means search and recovery operations are now exclusively being carried out at the south Indian Ocean, led by Australia, where attempts are being made to relocate and retrieve several objects, possibly MH370 debris, spotted on Monday.
Below are updates and the latest coverage from various sources and news agencies:
Conspiracy theories Wiki
11pm: A Wikipedia entry on conspiracy theories regarding MH370's disappearance is slowly expanding, but there are also efforts to delete the entry altogether.
The
theories ranges from early speculations to the outright bizzare -
theories about Illuminati involvement, UFOs and pop-star Shakira.The entry was created on March 25 and efforts are underway to remove it.
PM's wife expresses sympathy
8.46pm: Prime minister's wife Rosmah Mansor has expressed profound sympathy and conveyed her condolences to family members, friends and acquaintances of the MH370 passengers and crew.
In a statement today, reports Bernama, she called on all family members of the passengers and crew to be strong in accepting the will of God."I have received telephone calls from several wives of world leaders to express sympathy over the tragedy.
"I thanked them for their concerns and it shows Malaysia has many friends in such times of need," she is quoted as saying.
Iranians with stolen passports
8pm: Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that the two
Iranians who boarded the MH370 flight with stolen passports were not
terrorists and nor were they asylum seekers.
"We have investigated and came to this conclusion," he told the Parliament today.
He also said that the immigration officers could not identify the Iranians, and not Europeans, because of "weaknesses".
He also blames China's press for instigating families of the passengers in Beijing. Read our full story.
He also blames China's press for instigating families of the passengers in Beijing. Read our full story.
'Sealed evidence that can't be revealed'
7.05pm: Emotions spill over once more over in Beijing at a briefing by Malaysian officials to families of MH370 passengers, who are told that there is 'sealed evidence' that cannot be revealed.
According to Singapore’s The Straits Times, it includes air traffic control radio transcripts, radar data and airport security recordings.
It adds the families continue to pressure Malaysian officials for evidence which could convince them that the plane did indeed crash into the Indian Ocean and that their loved ones are dead.
"You expect us to accept a report you cannot defend?" one family member is quoted asking Malaysian envoy to China Iskandar Sarudin, who can only reply, "no comment".
The next-of-kin are also upset at the lack of caregivers tasked with helping them, when told there were only 50 due to problems finding volunteers, with one relation asking: "Two-thirds of MH370 passengers are Chinese but only 50 caregivers?"
They also asked how much the Malaysian government is paying for the UK satellite analysis, saying "you've been cheated," The Straits Times further reports.
More objects sighted
6.02pm: Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) reports that three objects have been sighted by search planes at the south Indian Ocean, two of which are likely to be ropes while the third is described as blue.
However, it says none have been relocated upon further passes.
5.45pm: The daily press briefing on the status of the ongoing search for MAS Flight MH370 begins. As usual, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein leads the session, now being held at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in the centre of Kuala Lumpur.
Here are some of the highlights:
-
Yesterday Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency (MRSA) received new satellite
images from France, taken on March 23 and covering an area of 400sq km,
shows 122 potential objects 2,557km from Perth.
-
Of these objects, some are 1 metre in length and some 23 metres, and bright, possibly indicating solid material. This "new lead" was immediately forwarded to Perth yesterday.
-
Malaysia has established an international working group comprising,
among others, satellite company Inmarsat, UK Air Accidents Investigation
Branch (AAIB), The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), US
National Transport Safety Bureau (NTSB) and Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), as well as Boeing, engine maker Rolls Royce, as
well as relevant Malaysian authorities.
-
The group will study the Inmarsat data try to determine, more accurately, the final position of Flight MH370.
-
Malaysia Airlines (MAS), tasked with briefing and dealing with affected
families of those on board Flight MH370, will be holding another press
conference tomorrow.
-
Hishammuddin, who is also defence minister, says he cannot confirm if the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) didn't act as it had assumed Flight MH370 was asked to turn back by Subang air traffic control.
-
Hishammuddin assures that security at Malaysian embassy in Beijing is under control.
-
He assures that anger directed at Malaysia by Chinese citizens has not
affected China-Malaysia bilateral ties. He says PM Najib Abdul Razak
will go ahead with plans to visit China in May.
-
He also opines that Malaysia has handled this crisis "admirably"
and considering its unprecedented nature, was able to garner the "most
sophisticated" assets from all over the world to come assist in the
search and rescue operations.
-
He appeals for understanding from Chinese families, saying that as a brother and a father, he understands their ordeal.
He points out that Malaysia, along with several other nations, have also lost citizens.
5.20pm: Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri tells Parliament that the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) did not act to intercept MH370 when it was detected on the military radar off the Straits of Malacca on March 8 not long after it ceased communications with air traffic control, as it "assumed" that the flight was ordered to turn back by the control tower.
Read the full story here.
Minister denies missed meeting sparked protest
5pm: Foreign Affairs Minister Anifah Aman denies a media report claiming yesterday's protest in Beijing was sparked by Malaysia's envoy to China, Iskandar Sarudin, failing to keep an appointment with families of Flight MH370 passengers.
Read the full story here.
Search region geologically 'extremely active'
4.28pm: Search teams looking for MH370 are facing challenges ranging from huge waves to underwater volcanoes, says experts quoted by the AFP.
The report says that the region being searched is very windy with waves up to 15 metres during winter, and is also geologically “extremely active”.
“It's rugged, it's covered in faults, fine-scale gullies and ridges, there isn't a lot of sediment blanketing that part of the world because it's fresh (in geological terms),” says James Cook University underwater geologist Robin Beamen.
On the bright side, University of New South Wales oceanographer Erik van Sebille says the remoteness of the suspected crash site also means any large debris sighted is likely to have been part of the missing aircraft rather than unrelated flostsam.
Abbott moves motion of condolence in Parliament
4.05pm: Australian PM Tony Abbott today tables a motion in Parliament to express the government's condolences to grieving families.
"We mourn all those 239 passengers and crew. We especially mourn the six Australian citizens and one Australian resident who must be presumed dead and we grieve with their families and loved ones," he says.
Several of the family members are present to hear the motion.
Daily Mail floats fresh 'suicide' theory
4pm: After Telegraph, another British tabloid is pursuing the 'pilot suicide' theory by speculating that the plane was flown to its maximum altitude as part of the plot.
Citing an anonymous source, the Daily Mail claims that MH370 flew at 43,000 to 45,000 feet for 23 minutes, 11 minutes longer than oxygen supply in depressurised cabins.
It quotes an aerodynamics professor as saying that emergency air supply would not automatically kick in if the plane flew at 43,000 feet.
It also reports that investigators are probing the possibility that the pressurisation system was deliberately turned off, thereby jeopardising filtered cabin air.
Yesterday, Germany's Speigel Online posited the ghost plane theory—that an electrical fire caused the system to halt, knocking out all on board and leaving the aircraft to fly on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel.
Special equipment no use without wreckage
3.30pm: BBC reports that the US Navy has flown in "specialist underwater detection equipment" which will aid detection of the plane's flight recorder.
However,
it says that can be carried out when the wreckage is found, and even
then, it states it will still be several days before the ship carrying
the detectors will arrive at the search site.BBC further warns that tomorrow's weather threatens to deteriorate once more, "with a cold front bringing thunderstorms and strong winds", and that this could further slow the progress of search efforts.
Chinese envoy meets PM
3pm: China’s news agency Xinhua reports that special envoy to Malaysia Zhang Yesui meets with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to discuss the search for the missing plane.
This comes as family members of Chinese national on board Flight MH370 protested in Beijing yesterday, unwilling to accept the Malaysian government’s announcement that the plane crashed into the south Indian Ocean and none survived, due to lack of any concrete evidence.
China's Foreign Ministry also reportedly requested for all relevant satellite data from Malaysia and British satellite company Inmarsat.
It is later reported by Reuters that he requests for "unremitting
efforts" on the search for the missing plane.
Meanwhile, Bernama reports that Indonesia, too, is sending a special envoy to hold an “intensive dialogue” with Malaysia.
It cites Antara news agency, which quotes Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa as saying: “We need clarification from the Malaysian authorities. We do not want the families to miss out on clear information”.
'Little can be done without debris'
2pm: Oceanographers have used data from drift models to construct a dynamic map of the sea in order to find where MH370 went down. But without debris, there is little they can do.
Time is also running out, Australia's leading scientific agency Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, or CSIRO's team leader David Griffin tells the Wall Street Journal.
“You can really only follow things with any certainty for a couple of weeks. We’re getting to the end now of the time when you can backtrack to the original location (of the crash),” Griffin says.
'Families shouldn't have been informed by text'
1.50pm: PKR vice-president Tian Chua says families should not have been informed that their loved ones in all certainty did not survive, via text message.
"I
urge Malaysian Airlines to choose a more comforting method to handle
the situation...After two weeks anxiously waiting for some good news,
receiving a text message with such news would have been very painful,"
he says in a statement.He also urges media to not publish speculations accusing the pilot of suicide, fingering specifically the UK's Daily Telegraph.
MAS has defended contacting families via text message, saying that it was a "last" resort when it could not call or speak to the 1,000 family members to avoid them learning about it on the news.
Flags to be flown at half-mast
1.37pm: The sultan of Pahang ordered that the Pahang and Malaysian flags be flown at half-mast in the state for three days from today as a mark of respect over the MAS aircraft tragedy, Bernama reports.
The state Information Department says in a statement that the order was directed at all government departments and agencies and private sector firms.
Families opt to stay put, for now
12.30pm: Some families of MH370 passengers are opting not to go to Australia, despite MAS' offer to fly them out until the wreckage is found.
Indonesian news outlet Tempo reports that the family members of Indonesian passengers Indra Suria Tanurisman and Firman Chandra Siregar as holding on to belief their son is alive, opting to wait at home until there is physical evidence of a crash.
"At this moment, Firman's mother and myself still believe that our son is working with in China," Firman's father Krisman is quoted saying.
Firman's family is mulling legal action.
Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Chinese families, too, feel there is no point travelling to Perth until more concrete evidence is found.
PM Abbott: Search not open-ended
12.01pm: Another three Chinese ships have now joined merchant vessel Xue Long and Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) HMAS Success at the MH370 search site, along with five aircraft, reports The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa).
11.30am: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says that while there is no deadline set for the search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean, the search is not endless.
"It's not absolutely open-ended, but it's not something we will lightly abandon," Abbott is quoted by dpa as saying.
Locators useless if pinger damaged
11.20am: While the US Navy is shipping its towed pinger locator to Australia to find MH370’s black box, its manufacturer tells Sydney Morning Herald that the device has limitations despite numerous past successes.
The
pinger locator is designed to search up to a depth of 6,000 metres, but
the Indian Ocean can be as deep as 7,000 metres in parts.In addition, the device can only be used once the search area is narrowed down further, while the black box’s pinger have a battery life of some 30 days. MH370 went missing on March 8.
The pingers may have also been damaged upon impact, rendering the locators useless as it did in the Air France Flight 447, which crashed in 2009.
Pingers are attached to the black box and emits a sound when submerged in water, while the pinger locator is comprised of highly sensitive underwater microphones designed to find it.
11 days left before black box battery dies
11am: It has been 19 days since MAS Flight MH370 disappeared.
The
clock ticks as that leaves less than just 11 days for search teams to
find the plane before the black box battery runs out and it ceases to
emit 'pings'.According to Australia's news.com.au, the black box emits one 'ping' per second for 30 days, which can be picked up by sonar and acoustic-locating equipment.
However, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has vowed that search for the missing plane will not stop even after the black box battery runs out after the 30-day mark.
He says there are other means investigators and search parties can employ to locate the black box.
China, US affirms support
10.20am: Both the Chinese president Xi Jinping and US president Barack Obama reaffirm their support towards the search for MH370, says Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
The New Straits Times reports that Muhyiddin met the two leaders at the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Hague, to express Malaysia’s appreciation for the two country’s contribution in the search efforts.
To
a question whether China is dissatisfied with Malaysia’s handling of
the crisis, Muhyiddin is quoted saying that Xi empathised with Malaysia
over the large scale of the SAR effort, and alluded to longstanding
diplomatic relations between Malaysia and China.However, in apparent disatisfaction at the PM's announcement on Monday, Reuters had reported that China's Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng ‘immediately demanded’ all relevant satellite data from Malaysia.
The ministry is also seeking satellite data from British satellite company Inmarsat, to know exactly how the final conclusion was derived.
What are they searching for
10am: Another recap - On Monday, Australia announced spotting two objects in the search area - an orange rectangular object and a green or grey circular one.
Although it said it maintained aerial view of the objects as at yesterday, the search was called off for 24 hours yesterday due to rough weather.
The objects were located more than 2,000km west of Perth in what is described as one of the most remote corners of the globe.
However, Al Jazeera reporter Andrew Thomas, who was on board the Australian P3 Orion aircraft that spotted the reported debris, claimed that there were five objects.
How the Doppler Effect factors in
9.15am: To recap, investigators determined that MH370 had flown to the southern corridor by looking for subtle shifts in the radio frequency that the aircraft used to communicate with Inmarsat’s satellite.
The
shifts - caused by the Doppler Effect - is akin to a police siren that
sounds differently as the police car passes by. The same principle that
changes the sound of moving vehicle also applies to the radio frequency
of a moving aircraft.By measuring these shifts and comparing it against what would have been expected if MH370 had turned north or south, investigators found a good match between the measurements and the expected radio frequencies of the southerly route.
This type of analysis has not been used to locate an aircraft before, and investigators tested the method with six other aircraft whose flight path were known to ensure that it works.
Read more here.
Final ping 'not by human interaction'
8.50am: British satellite operator Inmarsat says the final "partial ping", that is a digital handshake between MH370 and its satellite was not from human interaction.
It says investigators are investigating if the partial ping which originated from the aircraft at 9.15am Malaysian time on March 8 was "failed login" or the system "resetting itself".
"We're not looking at (the partial ping) as someone trying to turn on the communication system," Inmarsat senior vice-president Chris McLaughlin tells the Wall Street Journal.
Australia defends Malaysia
8am: Australian Minister of Defence David Johnston defends Malaysia’s handling of the MH370 crisis, saying that its critics have the benefit of hindsight.
"Look, this has been a tragedy that has come from nowhere, who would have anticipated anything like this, an aircraft just going off the radar?
"And
now we believe it’s about three and a half thousand kilometres away
from where it was supposed to be at its last point of identification –
and may I say – in one of the most outrageously remote parts of the
planet."I mean, there is just nothing down there…," he says in an interview with CNN yesterday.
He adds analyses on satellite data used to determine MH370’s location took time because the relevant data needs to be filtered from large amounts of other data, including those from other aircraft communicating with the satellite.
“I think they’ve achieved something that might be the beginning of something concrete. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
“As I say, when we pull something out of the ocean and someone says this is clearly a part of this aircraft, I think that will be a significant step,” he says.
A transcript of which is available from the Australian Ministry of Defence. Read the full transcript here.
Weather permits search
7am: The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) confirms that the search for objects sighted in the south Indian Ocean has resumed as weather conditions improves.It says a total of 12 aircraft will be involved in searches covering 80,000 sq km.
Meanwhile, Australian vessel HMS Success and Chinese ice-breaker Xue Long are in the search area.
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.
-
Authorities have determined the plane intentionally made a turn-back and
altered its course shortly after cutting communications with tower
controllers for unknown reasons.
- Its whereabouts is now narrowed to the southern Indian Ocean after employing a "new analysis" method to deduce the location based on six pings the aircraft sent out to British satellite communications provider Inmarsat's satellite before disappearing into the waters.
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