MH370 Amid reports suggesting investigators had been slow to react to new information that the missing flight MH370 had flown for hours after going missing, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein explained that the data had taken time to analyse.

He said the multinational investigation had received the data from the British satellite communications provider Inmarsat on March 12, about 3pm.

The investigation team had little choice but to use this data because there is scant other information to work on. However, the data provided is not meant to facilitate the search of missing aircraft, he said.

"Upon receiving the raw data, the Malaysian authorities immediately discussed with the US team how this information might be used.

"The US team and the investigations team then sent the data to the US, where further processing was needed before it could be used," he told a press conference today.

MH370 had gone missing on March 8, and for the first week it was presumed to have crashed either in the South China Sea or the Straits of Malacca and search and rescue (SAR) efforts were focused there.

Yesterday however, the US-based ABC News reported that Inmarsat suspected had that the aircraft crashed in the Indian Ocean instead on the following day, and are ‘fairly certain’ of it by March 10.

Search redirected on March 15

The report says the data was handed over to Malaysian authorities on March 12, but the search was only redirected on March 15.

Hishammuddin explained that initial findings of the data analysis were received on March 13 at 1.30pm, but the US team and the investigation team both agreed that ‘further refinement’ was necessary, and the data was sent back to the US.

“The results were received at approximately (2.30pm) on Friday March 14, and presented to the investigations team at a high-level meeting at (9pm) on Friday.

“The UK Air Accidents Investigation Board (AAIB), who had also been processing this data independently, presented their results - which concurred with ours and those of the US team - at that meeting,” he said.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was briefed on this development at 8am on the day after, and then announced that MH370 had been 'deliberately diverted' later that day.

The breakthrough based on Inmarsat’s data led to the abandonment of the search in the existing areas, and refocussing the SAR effort in a northern corridor stretching into Central Asia, and a southern corridor that reaches the southern Indian Ocean.

It also helped to conclude that a mysterious radar blip detected by the Royal Malaysian Air Force’s radar and suspected to be MH370 was indeed the missing aircraft, and it had been flying for at least six hours after it had gone missing.

Meanwhile, Malaysia will soon need to seek equipment exclusive to only a few countries in the world to recover the black box of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 before its battery, which is expected to last no more than three more week, dies.

“Very limited countries have that capability and I have been talking to the leaders of those countries for possibly using or giving us the chance or opportunity to use it,” Hishammuddin told a daily briefing for MH370 today.

Hishammuddin was referring to an equipment called ‘Pinger Locator Hydrophones’ that can pick up signals up to six kilometres below the surface.

He did not name the countries that may have this equipment, but is scheduled to speak to US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel at 9.15pm tonight to request specialised equipment needed for a deep sea search.

The equipment is needed to detect the black box before its approximately 30-day battery life powering its pingers, like a beacon, expires.

Fourteen days have already passed in a fruitless search for the aircraft.

'Search will go on'

To a question whether the SAR operation would end after the battery expires, Hishammuddin said the search will go on, but the equipment needed for the task is still being discussed.

Malaysian authorities are currently being advised on deep sea search operations by a team of French experts who had been involved in the search for Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the deeps of the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.

According to the crash investigation report, there are only two pinger locators in the world at the time that can detect the black box’s pinger up to a depth of 6,000 metres.

Both belong to the US Navy and were sent to search for Flight 447, but failed to detect the beacons despite passing near the wreckage twice.