Company believes wreckage 5,000km away
Latest developments:
- Exploration company says wreckage could be in Bay of Bengal
Military radar would've beeped so loud, says Anwar
7.17pm: PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim ( left ) claims that the radar system purchased by Malaysia when he was deputy prime minister, and is apparently still in use by the air force, would have “beeped so loud” when an airplane crossed into Malaysian airspace.
"The air force staff might be asleep but... the beeps would be so loud that they must have been alerted and there would (be a) recording of the radar.
"The plane crossed five provinces, Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Perak, Penang, our heartland. We have major security problems if the government says it cannot detect," Anwar is quoted as saying by Thai newspaper The Nation .
Elements consistent with Boeing 777 traced
6.15pm: An Adelaide-based exploration company GeoResonance claims to have located elements on the ocean floor consistent with plane wreckage at the Bay of Bengal, 5,000km from where investigators are looking.
Australia's 7News reports that GeoResonance has identified aluminium, titanium, copper, steel alloys and other materials consistent with the make-up of a Boeing 777.
The company started its own search on March 10, using technology meant to find submarine and nuclear warheads, Australia's Channel 7 reports.
It says that when compared with its records, the same materials were not there prior to March 8, when MH370 disappeared.
"We’re not trying to say that it definitely is MH370. However it is a lead we feel should be followed up," David Pope from GeoResonance is quoted saying.
MAS estimated to lose RM1bil
4.30pm: Already having lost more than US$1.3 billion (RM4.2 billion) in the past three years, analysts estimate that the MH370 tragedy, which prompted a travel agency boycott in China, is expected to set Malaysia Airlines (MAS) back by another US$325 million (RM1.06 billion) by end of 2016.
Bloomberg reports that the best solution is to break up MAS by listing its profitable divisions and selling its stakes, including low-cost carrier Firefly, in other businesses to raise RM4.15 billion.
Analysts also feel that now is a good time for MAS to consider the restructuring, to take advantage of the sympathies over the yet unsolved tragedy.
MAS and its majority-owner, Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, has declined to comment.
No MAS staff were held hostage
3.17pm: The Malaysia High Commission in Beijing denies a Malaysia Airlines press statement that the companies' staff were detained at Lido Hotel by the families of the Chinese passengers last week.
“The embassy wishes to clarify that the incident as reported by the media did not take place,” it says in a statement.
Read more here .
Abbot: Search to concentrate solely on seabed
12pm: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and JACC chief Angus Houston hold a press conference in Canberra. Here are some of the highlights:
- The search on the ocean surface to cease as it is " highly unlikely " that debris can be found on the surface. Absolutely nothing has been found relating to the missing plane, including through satellite imagery.
Dr M mocked for 'solving' MH370 mystery
11:33am: Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's blog entry accusing airplane-maker Boeing of being at fault for MH370's disappearance has been met with ridicule by The Atlantic .
The US-based magazine says the remark underscores how Mahathir had "for decades...governed with a giant chip on his shoulder", to the extent to coming up with such an explanation.
The article, bruisingly headlined ‘The Man who thinks he has solved the MH370 mystery...but hasn't’ also contrasts Mahathir's views with that of pilot Patrick Smith who says that no theories of what happened totally jives with available evidence.
"That's what makes the situation an enduring and perhaps permanent mystery. No explanation makes sense. Except, of course, Dr. Mahathir's," the magazine writes.
'We're not equipped to hunt in those depths'
11:20am: Australia-based military historian Tom Lewis expects it to take years before any sign of the MH370 is found.
Basing his assertion on the search for the HMAS Sydney, which was found in 2008 after being lost for 67 years, he says that it is the depths of the Indian Ocean that remains the biggest hurdle.
“We still don’t have the technology that can punch those depths with certainty,” he is quoted as saying by News.com.au
“We are not equipped to hunt in those depths because we haven’t needed to...It'll take years to find this plane."
He also says that conspiracy theories, like claims that the plane was hijacked and taken to American airbase Diego Garcia, is hurtful to passengers' families, similar to decade-old speculations on the Sydney.
Bluefin to search around focussed search area
8.31am: The search continues for MH370 with automated underwater vehicle Bluefin-21 commencing its 16th mission to scour the Indian Ocean floor.
It has completed 15 missions in search of signs of the blackbox transponders or debris on the seabed, but to no avail.
However, according to Australia's Joint Action Coordination Centre (JACC), the Bluefin will examine the areas adjacent to the focussed underwater search area during mission 16.
Meanwhile, for the surface visual search, nine military aircraft and 12 ships will scour an area 54,921square kilometres in size, northwest of Perth.
Although the cold front is expected to move out of the search area, the JACC expects it to be replaced by southerly trade flow resulting in ocean swells of up to five metres.
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.
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