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Inmarsat traces cause of partial ping
Published:  Apr 8, 2014 9:58 AM
Updated: 3:53 AM

British satellite company Inmarsat has ‘finally understood’ the partial ping it received from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which has been missing since March 8.

Chris McLaughlin, senior vice-president for external affairs, said the final ping or handshake was only partially transmitted because the aircraft had ran out of fuel, reported The Telegraph .

"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,”  he was quoted as saying.

"The plane looked for a final communication before it went off - and that was it,"

McLaughlin likened the sequence to a car spluttering as it runs out of fuel.

Investigators had initially relied on six handshakes automatically transmitted to Inmarsat even after communications between Flight MH370 and air traffic controllers were mysteriously cut off.

The information was used to estimate the aircraft’s approximate location at every point when the handshake was sent out, with the last being at 8.11am on March 8.

On March 25, it was revealed that investigators had discovered a seventh and partial ping at 8.19am, on top of the regular hourly pings, but were not able to understand it at that time.

By March 28, however, it had been announced the search site would be shifted 1,100km northwards of the original area in the southern Indian Ocean based on "new and credible" information.

McLaughlin revealed the information which was used to established the current search area was derived from that partial ping.

The Telegraph reported that, after Inmarsat discovered the partial handshake, it estimated the Flight MH370 may have ended further north than expected.

"The analysis was then further refined by a team of international experts, who used Malaysian radar data and Boeing analysis to assess that the plane was travelling faster than thought, burning up more fuel, and would have landed even further north along the same (southern) arc," the report added.

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