Latest developments
- MAS drafts plan to fly families to Perth
MAS ready to fly families to Perth
10.30pm:
MAS is currently drafting a D-day plan, which is subject to approval of the Malaysian and Chinese governments, to make arrangements for the families of passengers on board its vanished MH370, to fly to Perth once the aircraft is found.MAS regional senior vice-president (greater China) Joshua Law Kok Hwa said this today after a briefing with Chinese families in Beijing on Tuesday.
Read more here.
Dr M: M'sia has no reason not to tell all
6.35pm: Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad ( right ) weighs into the MH370 crisis by defending Malaysia's handling of the incident.
“For the Malaysian (government), they have done everything they can. They do not have any reason not to tell other people what they have discovered.
“We want to solve the problem, because it is important for Malaysia,” Mahathir is quoted saying in an interivew with China's news agency Xinhua .
He adds he is confident that the Malaysia tourism industry can recover from the incident.
Read more here .
Passengers not off the hook yet
5.05pm: Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein contradicts Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar's declaration that the 227 passengers on board Flight MH370 are cleared of causing the lost of Flight MH370, saying their positions could still be revised.
"Background checks and intelligence received from both local and foreign enforcement and intelligence agencies showed no adverse records on any of the 227 passengers on board that could suggest their involvement in the missing plane.
"We wish to reiterate that investigation is still on-going and should there be new leads to suggest otherwise, we will revise the status of our investigation on any of the passengers base on the fresh information or intelligence received," he is quoted saying by the New Straits Times .
He tells journalists after attending a committee meeting on asset deployment for the search of MH370 in the Indian Ocean that investigation into the pilot, co-pilot and crew members is being intensified.
Inmarsat continues to refine calculations
3.48pm: UK-based satellite company Inmarsat says it will continue to refine the data it has to better establish Flight MH370's possible location, reports Bloomberg .
Inmarsat executive chairperson Andrew Sukawaty says the company is providing "more analysis and refinement" and is looking at what else it can do with the data that's at hand.
The current search area in the southern Indian ocean is a product of Inmarsat's calculation of Flight MH370's possible final location based the pings it received from the aircraft.
No press briefing
2.45pm: There will not be any press briefing on ongoing search efforts for Flight MH370 by acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein today.
China 'not following protocol'
2.34pm: Sky News claims China has apparently “gone rogue” in the ongoing search operation in the Indian Ocean.
Its defence correspondent Alistair Bunkall claims China appeared keen to prove itself but is not working as a team player.
"There were 154 Chinese nationals on board MH370 and clearly Beijing has a right to play a major role in the search, but more than once by various senior people I have been told how they are not operating as team players.
"There are clearly two separate search operations going on and that isn't helpful," Bunkall says in an opinion piece.
He points out an example of how state media Xinhua had broke the news that China's Haixun 01 had picked up an acoustic signal in the search area.
"By right, China's news should have been relayed to the world by him (Joint Agency Coordination Centre chief Angus Houston) or the Malaysians. That would have been the protocol," Bunkall says.
JACC chief: Search still long, long way to go
11.15am: JACC chief Angus Houston and Australia Defence Minister David Johnston give a press briefing at the Royal Australian Air Force Pearce base in Perth. Here are some of the highlights:
- ADV Ocean Shield has to date yet to reacquire the signals it picked up yesterday, which authorities said were "consistent" as coming from black boxes.
Even so, Houston reiterates that the transmission detected yesterday sounded like an emission from an emergency beacon, and "that's why we are so excited" and believe Ocean Shield's lead is the most promising.
- However, he says the ship will continue to use US' pinger locater for several more days, even though the black boxes have exceeded their guaranteed battery life.
"We need to continue that for several days until a point there is absolutely no doubt the batteries will have expired," Houston says.
"The (search for) Air France (Flight 447) locater battery five years ago, (the signal) was 34 kilohertz but what happens is there is a change (of frequency) due to the pressure on the ocean floor and age of the particular battery.
10.30am: JACC chief Angus Houston and Australia Defence Minister David Johnston have called for a press conference at the Royal Australian Air Force Pearce base in Perth at 11am.DCA authorised to examine black box
10.11am: As searchers appear closer to finding Flight MH370's black box, questions arise over who will have the authority to examine the device, should it be found.
Former MAS managing director Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman ( right ) insists Malaysia's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), as the regulator of the national aviation industry, has the authority to do so, reports Bernama .
"Nevertheless, it can also appoint any third party, whether domestic or from abroad to do it," he was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Reuters quotes Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) chief Angus Houston as saying the autonomous underwater vehicle Bluefin-21 will de deployed anyway if ADV Ocean Shield is still unable to reacquire the signal it previously detected.
Yesterday, it was announced the vessel had picked up signals "consistent" with that emitted by a black box and is now trying to re-establish connection once more, however, it is feared the black box may have ceased emitting pings.
IGP: Positive ping verification can aid probe
9.50am: Inspector-General of Police says to date, police have questioned more than 180 people in connection to the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner, the New Straits Times reports.
In its report yesterday, it also quotes the IGP promising that investigations will be announced in time.
Khalid ( right ) also hopes the signals detected by ship scouring the south Indian Ocean do indeed originate from the plane’s black box, as that would facilitate investigations.
Partial ping understood
9.14am: British-based satellite company Inmarsat reveals it has finally understood the partial ping, or handshake, it received from Flight MH370 which it says indicated the point which the aircraft ran out of fuel, reports The Telegraph .
Chris McLaughlin, who is senior vice-president for external affairs at Inmarsat, likens the situation to a car spluttering as it runs out of fuel.
"The partial handshake would be the plane running out of fuel and faltering for a moment, so the system went off network and then briefly powered up and had communication with the network. The plane looked for a final communication before it went off – and that was it," he is quoted saying.
This partial handshake was also used to establish the current search area which began on March 28, a shift of about 1,100km northwards of the original search area in the south Indian Ocean.
It preceded an announcement on March 25 where it was revealed investigators had discovered a partial and seventh handshake on top of the six other complete handshakes automatically transmitted after Flight MH370 mysteriously cut off communications.
Read full story here .
ICAO to meet next month
8.35am: The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) announces it will convene a special meeting of state and industry experts on global tracking of airline flights following the MH370 incident.
ICAO council president Olumuyiwa Benard Ali says the meeting is aimed at "increasing current momentum on deliberations over the specific aircraft and satellite-based capabilities needed to permit global implementation of worldwide flight tracking".
The meeting is expected to take place on May 12-13.
On top of that, the ICAO has approved new guidance for underwater locator beacons on board planes to expedite locating crash sites, due to come into force in 2018.
Ocean Shield continues to probe signal find
6am: The search operation for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 enters day 32 today with 14 planes and 14 ships combing the Indian Ocean at an area 2,268km north, says the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC).
The search area today is smaller and more focussed than it had been before, at 77,580 square kilometres and searchers expects good weather throughout the day.
ADV Ocean Shield will continue to investigate the signal it picked up at the northern end of the search area while Chinese ship Haixun 01 is at the southern in investigating another signal it picked up, aided by HMS Echo.
Time is running out as the plane's black box, if indeed it is still emitting pings, is running on borrowed time as its battery was to have run out on Sunday.
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.
