Latest developments:

  • Last RMAF plane returns from Perth

 

  • Girlfriend of missing engineer gets death threats

    •  

  • Investigators initially stuck in hotels watching TV

  • Families pressure authorities to release data

    • Follow us as we bring the latest updates and coverage for the search of Flight MH370:

    Last RMAF plane returns

    6.40pm: The last Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) C130 Hercules aircraft which took part in the operation to find MH370, landed at the Subang RMAF base today at 11am.

    "Three C130H from the number 20 RMAF squadron were sent to Perth to join seven countries in the effort to find flight MH370,” said RMAF First Air Division Commander Major-General Azizool Arif Abdul Ghani.

    "Two aircraft had departed on March 28 while another on April 5. The two aircraft have returned home on April 30 with 19 officers and 35 personnel," he told Bernama .

    Girlfriend of missing engineer gets death threats

    5.30pm : The partner of one of the MH370 passengers, Sarah Bajc, claims that she has received death threats, pornographic images, and “creepy phone calls” since the second week of the aircraft’s disappearance.

     

    She also claims that her apartment in Beijing had been broken into twice, before the messages started coming, she told the US broadcast NBC .

     

    “I have no illusions of privacy here (in Beijing),” she was quoted as saying yesterday.

     

    However, she said the calls have stopped when she informed this to a US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who was assigned to help her and her partner, Philip Wood.

     

    Bajc and the US citizen Wood were preparing to move to Beijing when he went missing along with 238 others on-board MH370.

     

    Meanwhile, the AFP reports last night that French judicial authorities have launched an involuntary homicide probe into the plane crash since Wednesday , quoting unnamed judicial authorities.

     

    There were four French nationals on-board the missing aircraft.

     

    According to the online news portal fz.com today, MH370 is the 89 th aircraft to go missing since 1948, quoting data gather on the website Aviation Safety Network .

     

    “Back in the 1940s and 50s such disappearances were more common when communication technology was not so advanced, but in recent history, with such state-of-the-art equipment, the fate of MH370 truly remains a mystery.

     

    “Based on the history of aircraft disappearances, one could conclude that even if MH370 is not located in the near future, there is the possibility of it resurfacing decades down the line,” it says.

    Undersea search continues in Indian Ocean

    5.10pm: The Australian vessel ADV Ocean Shield is now back at sea for a three-day trip to resume the search for MH370, Reuters reports.

     

    It is carrying the US Navy-supplied Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to scan the seabed for signs of debris, and had been at a naval port near Perth to resupply, change crew and modify the AUV’s software.

     

    Ocean Shield is due to return to port again at the end of the month.

    Read more about Ocean Shield's latest deployment here .
     

    Meanwhile, Chinese state media Xinhua reported yesterday that the Chinese survey vessel Zhukezhen is replacing the amphibious assault vessel Jinggangshan in the search operations.

     

    “Zhukezhen, with more than 20 measurement systems on board, specialises in depth measurement and the study of submarine geomorphology and geology.

     

    “It will undertake a new underwater phase of the search as winter approaches and conditions in the southern Indian Ocean gradually worsen, posing more difficulties to the search,” the report said.

     

    Apart from measurements taken during the search operation, the search area is uncharted because it is far from the economic zones of any country.

    'MH370 probe team was stuck in hotel watching TV'

    12pm: An international team of investigators charged to assist investigations into the MH370 incident had initially sat idly with nothing to do, claims former US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member John Goglia.

    “The Malaysians stuck them in a hotel room and didn't give anything (to work on). They sat there watching TV,” he told the magazine Popular Mechanics .

    The report also quotes an unnamed NTSB official saying that relations with Malaysian officials improved “once they finally figured out their national reputation was at stake.”

    Goglia describes the Malaysian response to the MH370 incident as “a mess” that took weeks to start. Full story

    Release of raw data to 3rd parties 'not advisable'

    11am: While families of MH370 victims continue to pressure for data from the satellite company Inmarsat to be made public for independent analysis, a former air crash investigator says it would open the data to misuse.

    “Given that they (the families) don't have the expertise, that could led to a lot of posturing by outsiders,” former US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member John Goglia told Popular Mechanics.

    He says the two-week long experts' meeting that has been taking place in Canberra since Wednesday this week is the “proper way to do it”.

    The meeting will re-examine all data garnered from the search for MH370 so far, including the Inmarsat satellite data that led investigators to conclude that the missing aircraft crashed into the south Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia.

    Meanwhile, Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reports that relatives of MH370 victims are planning to set up a website containing all information that they hope will help locate the aeroplane.

    They are also in midst of searching for a suitable venue to organise weekly or monthly meetings to hold briefing sessions, as well as to continue communications with Malaysian authorities.

    This comes after MAS closed its family assistance centre in Lido Hotel, Beijing in May 2, which the relatives suspect was due to their protest outside the Malaysian embassy on April 25.

    "Asking us to leave the Lido will break up the large group of relatives… It's not that we want free accommodation and food from the airline.

    “We're afraid that once we leave, there will be less and less information, and that we'll be completely ignored,” the group’s spokesperson Steve Wang is quoted saying.

    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 that the plane intentionally turned back and altered its course shortly after cutting communications with tower controllers for unknown reasons and, based on satellite data, have estimated its last position to be in the south Indian Ocean.

    Australia leads the search in the south Indian Ocean. As of March 30, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) is tasked with overseeing the operations, led by retired air marshal and former defence chief Angus Houston.

    The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Bluefin-21 was deployed on April 14 to conduct an undersea search where the Australia Defence Vessel Ocean Shield had picked up two pings similar to black boxes on April 5 and two more on April 8 but failed to reacquire them again with the pinger locator.

    However, by April 28, with no sign of the wreckage, authorities announced that the search will move to the next phase, which will focus on a larger and deeper area of the sea floor, while the aerial search will cease as it is highly unlikely any floating debris will be found at this stage.