Heartbreak for relatives as officials say they believe Malaysian Airlines flight DID come down in the southern Indian Ocean

• Malaysian PM says new data indicated flight ended in southern Indian Ocean
• He said families of the passengers had been informed of latest development
• Based on analysis by UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch and Inmarsat
• Australian aircraft spots two new objects in southern Indian Ocean
• HMAS Success is 'on scene' and attempting to locate the two objects
• Chinese plane earlier spotted 'suspicious objects' during search for jet
• Co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid recently transitioned to flying Boeing 777s

Daily Mail (UK) | 24 March 2014

 

Relatives of passengers and crew have been informed of the 'heartbreaking' news that Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean, the Malaysian Prime Minister has announced.

Najib Razak told a press conference new analysis by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch and tracking firm Inmarsat indicated the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after take-off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board on March 8.

No confirmed sighting of the plane has been made since, but much debris has been found in remote waters off Australia which might be part of the missing plane. 

According to Sky News, the families of the passengers on the missing plane are now due to be booked on to flights to take them to Australia.

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Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak today said a new analysis of satellite data shows that the missing Malaysia Airlines plane plunged into the southern Indian Ocean

Relatives of passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have been informed the plane ended its journey in the southern Indian Ocean

The families of the passengers on the missing plane are due to be booked on to flights to take them to Australia

The announcement was made as an Australian navy ship was on its way today to retrieve two new objects spotted by military aircraft and marked by flares in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet

Dressed in a black suit, Najib announced the news in a brief statement to reporters today, saying the information was based on an unprecedented analysis of satellite data from Inmarsat. 

He said the data indicated the plane flew 'to a remote location, far from any possible landing sites'. 

He said: 'It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that, according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.' 

Selamat Omar, the father of a 29-year-old aviation engineer who was on the flight, said some members of families of other passengers broke down in tears at the news.

'We accept the news of the tragedy. It is fate,' Mr Selamat told the Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur.

 

Mr Selamat said the airline has not told the families yet whether they will be taken to Australia, which is co-ordinating the search for the plane. He said they expect more details on Tuesday.

A multinational force has searched a wide swath of Asia trying to find the plane.

Mr Razak said that British firm Inmarsat had employed 'a type of analysis never before used in an investigation of this sort'.

The new data revealed that MH370 flew along the southern corridor where investigators had said the plane could have travelled along, based on pings sent several hours after it disappeared on March 8.

 

Investigators had drawn up two huge search areas in two large arcs - a northern corridor stretching from Malaysia to Central Asia and a southern corridor extending down towards Antartica.

 

Malaysian PM says flight MH370 crashed without survivors

So far, ships in the international search effort have been unable to locate several 'suspicious' objects spotted by satellites in grainy images or by fast-flying aircraft over a vast search area in the remote southern Indian Ocean

Selamat Omar, the father of a 29-year-old aviation engineer who was on the flight, said some members of families of other passengers broke down in tears at the news

Inmarsat was not immediately available for comment, while the AAIB referred any inquiries to the Malaysian authorities, who they referred to as the 'lead investigators'.

The announcement was made as an Australian navy ship was on its way today to retrieve two new objects spotted by military aircraft in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

HMAS Success was expected to reach the two objects by tomorrow morning at the latest, Malaysia's government said, as a mounting number of sightings of floating objects raised hopes wreckage of the plane may soon be found.

So far, ships in the international search effort have been unable to locate several 'suspicious' objects spotted by satellites in grainy images or by fast-flying aircraft over a vast search area in the remote southern Indian Ocean.

'HMAS Success is on scene and is attempting to locate and recover these objects,' Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who called his Malaysia counterpart Najib Razak to inform him of the sighting, said in a statement to parliament.

The objects, described as a 'grey or green circular object' and an 'orange rectangular object', were spotted about 2,500 km west of Perth on Monday afternoon, said Abbott, adding that three planes were also en route to the area.

View from a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion from RAAF base Pearce on assignment to the southern Indian Ocean to search for possible debris from the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

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Crew on an Australian military aircraft have spotted two new objects in the southern Indian Ocean. Pictured is Flt Lieutenant Adam Francki and Warrant Officer Brenton Bell in the cockpit of a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board on March 8. No confirmed sighting of the plane has been made since and there is no clue what went wrong.

Attention and resources in the search for the Boeing 777 have shifted from an initial focus north of the Equator to an increasingly narrowed stretch of rough sea in the southern Indian Ocean, thousands of miles from the original flight path.

Earlier on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency said a Chinese Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft spotted two 'relatively big' floating objects and several smaller white ones dispersed over several kilometres.

Beijing responded cautiously to the find. 'At present, we cannot yet confirm that the floating objects are connected with the missing plane,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a news briefing in Beijing.

Australia said that a U.S. Navy plane searching the area on Monday had been unable to locate the objects.

China has diverted its icebreaker Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, toward the location where the debris was spotted. A flotilla of other Chinese ships are also steadily making their way south. The ships will start to arrive in the area on Tuesday.

Over 150 of the passengers on board the missing plane were Chinese.

 

Possible debris from MH370 spotted by Australian search team

Aircrew look out of a window of a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion from RAAF base Pearce on an assignment to the southern Indian Ocean to search for possible debris from the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370

Flt Lieutenant Gavin Oakley on board a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion searching for the missing plane

The latest sighting followed reports by an Australian crew over the weekend of a floating wooden pallet and strapping belts in an area of the icy southern Indian Ocean that was identified after satellites recorded images of potential debris.

In a further sign the search may be bearing fruit, the U.S. Navy is flying in its high-tech black box detector to the area.

The so-called black boxes - the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder - record what happens on board planes in flight. At crash sites, finding the black boxes soon is crucial because the locator beacons they carry fade out after 30 days.

'If debris is found we will be able to respond as quickly as possible since the battery life of the black box's pinger is limited,' Commander Chris Budde, U.S. Seventh Fleet Operations Officer, said in an emailed statement.

Budde stressed that bringing in the black box detector, which is towed behind a vessel at slow speeds and can pick up 'pings' from a black box to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet, was a precautionary measure.

The Chinese aircraft that spotted the objects was one of two IL-76s searching on Monday. Another eight aircraft, from Australia, the United States and Japan, were scheduled to make flights throughout the day to the search site, some 1,550 miles southwest of Perth.

A view of the southern Indian Ocean from a Chinese IL-76 plane in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

New sighting: A Chinese military plane dispatched to join the search for MH370 has reportedly spotted 'suspicious objects' in the Indian Ocean target zone

Xinhua news agency says the search plane reported spotting 'floating white objects on the surface of the water in a remote patch of the Indian Ocean some 2,500km off the coast of Perth

A member of the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force Disaster Relief Team at Pearce Airbase in Perth, where two Orions were joining the multi-national search for MH370

The flight commander of one of Japan's Orion craft confirmed he had shared information with Chinese search teams. 'We will do our best,' he said, according to Japanese media on the tarmac

'The flight has been successful in terms of what we were looking for today. We were looking for debris in the water and we sighted a number of objects on the surface and beneath the surface visually as we flew over the top if it,' said Flight Lieutenant Josh Williams, on board a Royal Australian Air Force P-3 Orion.

'The first object was rectangular in shape and slightly below the ocean. The second object was circular, also slightly below the ocean. We came across a long cylindrical object that was possibly two meters long, 20 cm across.

'Everyone is quite hyped.'

Australia was also analysing French radar images showing potential floating debris that were taken some 850 km (530 miles) north of the current search area.

Australia has used a U.S. satellite image of two floating objects to frame its search area. A Chinese satellite has also spotted an object floating in the ocean there, estimated at 22 metres long (74ft) and 13 metres (43ft) wide.

It could not be determined easily from the blurred images whether the objects were the same as those detected by the Australian and Chinese search planes, but the Chinese photograph could depict a cluster of smaller objects, said a military officer from one of the 26 nations involved in the search.

Searching: Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss (right) and Dan Gillis, senior search and rescue officer involved in the search, look at monitors at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's centre in Canberra

Flying Officer Peter Moore, the aircraft's captain, said a combination of 'less than ideal' weather and sea conditions had closed in on the flight

Two Chinese Ilyushin IL-76s aircraft sit on the tarmac at RAAF Pearce base ready to join the search missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean

Acting Prime Minister of Australia Warren Truss speaks to the media at the RAAF Pearce Base, where he said the search for MH370 would continue 'while there's still hope' and until officials were certain it was 'futile'

The wing of a Boeing 777-200ER is approximately 27 metres long and 14 metres wide at its base, according to estimates derived from publicly available scale drawings. Its fuselage is 63.7 metres long by 6.2 metres wide.

NASA said it would use high-resolution cameras aboard satellites and the International Space Station to look for possible crash sites in the Indian Ocean. The U.S. space agency is also examining archived images collected by instruments on its Terra and Aqua environmental satellites.

Meanwhile, Malaysia Airlines chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid had just transitioned to flying Boeing 777s from other commercial planes and the missing flight was his sixth on that type of aircraft. 

Fariq, who had passed all training requirements to fly without incident, was flying the plane for the first time without a so-called 'check co-pilot' watching.

Investigators believe someone on the flight shut off the plane's communications systems. Partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and re-crossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.

That has led them to focus on hijacking or sabotage, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems. Faint electronic 'pings' detected by a commercial satellite suggested it flew for another six hours or so, but could do no better than place its final signal on one of two vast arcs north and south.

While the southern arc is now the main focus of the search, Malaysia says efforts will continue in both corridors until confirmed debris is found.

Mystery: Solid matter is pictured floating in the southern Indian Ocean, seen from a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft yesterday, searching for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370

A relative of Chinese passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines, MH370, expresses her frustration at the lack of information, to journalists in Beijing

The Japanese flight commander of an Orion aircraft confirmed he had 'shared some information with the Chinese' about MH370 debris.

But it was unclear whether Commander Hidetsugu Iwamasa had yet had a full briefing on the latest sighting today.

Commander Iwamasa said, according to Japanese media on the tarmac at Pearce: 'We shared some information with China, but I cannot go into detail.'

'We will do our best.'

The French satellite image was earlier thought to have been much closer to areas of the Indian Ocean where Australia and China provided satellite photographs of objects that could be debris from MH370.

That it is some 530 miles away has prompted Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss to describe the search operation as 'clutching' at information, as flight and sea crews embarked on their fifth day of sweeps in the target zone.

Working: Leading Seaman Luke Horsburgh stands watch during his duty as Quartermaster on the bridge of the Australian Navy ship HMAS Success after it arrived in the search area for missing MH370

Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss says the search operation is 'clutching' at new information after it was revealed new French satellite images were taken 850km from the current target zone

'The French sighting is a piece of new material because that is in a completely different location. That is about 850 kilometres north of our current search area,' Mr Truss told ABC Radio.

'That's not in the area that had been identified as the most likely place where the aircraft may have entered the sea. But having said all that we've got to check out all the options.

'We're just, I guess, clutching at whatever little piece of information comes along to try and find a place where we might be able to concentrate the efforts.'

Mr Truss added authorities still didn't 'know for certain' if any of the objects spotted by satellite thus far were related to MH370, which mysteriously disappeared on March 8.

He said weather conditions were also complicated Monday by Tropical Cyclone Gillian, a powerful storm to the north of the search zone that is likely to hamper a full day's search efforts.

'It is a very difficult task,' he added.

Day five of the search reveals numerous planned search areas for doomed flight MH370 in the southern search corridor off the coast of Perth. French authorities reported a satellite sighting of objects in the Indian Ocean

Ten aircraft including two from Japan and two from China have bolstered the ongoing search effort in the Indian Ocean, where possible debris from missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 was spotted

Ramped up search: Chinese relatives (centre) of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 leave after a meeting with airline officials at the Metro Park Lido Hotel in Beijing

A Chinese Antarctic exploration team member aboard Chinese icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon) searches for debris of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over the southern Indian Ocean

'The weather yesterday wasn't too bad, although there was early morning fog. Today we expect the weather to deteriorate and of course the forecasts ahead are not all that good. So it's going to be a challenge but we'll stick at it.'

AMSA confirmed weather conditions were difficult Monday, as search teams re-commenced targeted sweeps of the Indian Ocean.

'The weather forecast in the search area is expected to deteriorate with rain likely,' AMSA said.

'Today's search is split into two areas within the same proximity covering a cumulative 68,500 square kilometres.

'HMAS Success remains in the search area. A number of Chinese ships are en route to the search area to assist in the location of objects possibly related to the search.'

Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas told the MailOnline The US military KC-10 extender tanker - an aerial refuelling aircraft - would be joining the search fleet, in particular to assist the US Navy P8 Poseidon aircraft, which is out on mission today.

Mr Truss walks with RAAF Wing Commander James Parton and RAAF Group Captain Craig Heap: Mr Truss dismissed a suggestion the Australian Government had waited too long to act after revealing the satellite photos

Difficult time: Relatives of passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are seen coming out of a conference room wearing t-shirts reading 'Pray for MH370 Come Back Home Safely', at a hotel in Beijing

A RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft from 92 Wing on the flight line at dusk at RAAF base Pearce in Perth, Western Australia, yesterday, after completing a search sortie for Flight MH370

A Royal Australia Air Force AP3C Orion leaves RAAF Pearce Air Base in search of MH370. The flight went missing more than two weeks ago carrying 239 passengers and crew on route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing

'The United States is going to send a KC-10 tanker, which means the Poseidon will be able to stay out there virtually forever, instead of these two hour limits for actual search time,' he said.

The two Russian made Ilyuchin IL-76 aircraft deployed by the Chinese government flew from Pearce airbase to Perth airport and off to the target area early Monday.

Mr Thomas said the Ilyuchins, which were used by Australian forces in Afghanistan to deliver supplies and ordnance, needed the longer Perth international runway for take-off once they were fully loaded with fuel for maximum flight capacity.

'The IL-76s will use Perth airport as their take-off point for the length of this search,' he said.

The Ilyuchin planes are also designed as airborne refueling craft, and have been used by China as emergency response planes, evacuating Chinese citizens out of Libya in 2011.

Meanwhile, it was claimed that police have seized the personal financial records of all 12 crew members of the flight MH370 - including bank statements, mortgage documents and credit card bills.

Distress: Chinese relatives of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are pictured during a meeting with airline officials at the Metro Park Lido Hotel in Beijing

Anxious wait: A relative of a passenger onboard MH370 answers media questions at the Lido Hotel in Beijing

Detectives have also got hold of the mobile and landline phone records of the crew, along with details of their computer use and online habits, reported The Sunday Times.

Air and sea searches since last Thursday in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean to determine whether the objects were from the missing jet have been unsuccessful. 

Malaysia's Ministry of Transport said the images had been sent to Australia, which is coordinating the search about 1,550 miles south-west of Perth.

The images could be another clue in the growing mystery over Flight 370, with the search moving from seas off Vietnam when the plane first went missing to areas now not far from the Antarctica.

Wingwalker: Aircrew walk on the wing of a Japanese Air Force AP-3C Orion after it landed at RAAF Pearce Base to join the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370

Working together: Disaster relief team leader Masahiko Kobayashi (left) greets Japanese air force Commander Hidetsugu Iwanasa after his AP-3C Orion landed at RAAF Pearce Base in Perth to join the search for MH370

A photo released by Chinese broadcaster CCTV shows a satellite image of a large floating object in the Indian Ocean that could be related to missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

Diagrams: Mike Barton (right), Rescue Coordination Chief, shows Australian Deputy Prime minister Warren Truss (left), maps of the Indian Ocean search area for the missing Malaysian Airlines aircraft

  

Chinese families Of MH370 passengers criticisize Malaysia

There, planes and a ship were scrambling today looking for a pallet and other debris to determine whether the objects were from the missing jet. 

The pallet was spotted by a search plane yesterday, but has not been closely examined. Wooden pallets are commonly used in shipping, but can also be used in cargo containers carried on planes.

Mike Barton, chief of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's rescue coordination centre, told reporters in Canberra that the wooden pallet was spotted by a search aircraft yesterday.

He added that it was surrounded by several other objects, including what appeared to be strapping belts of different colours. 

Squadron leader Brett McKenzie takes notes of other search aircraft on the windshield of a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft searching for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over the southern Indian Ocean

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott says 'three significant developments' have offered 'increasing hope' of finding MH370, as the search continues in the southern Indian Ocean

A new hope: Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein holds up the note on which he was passed the information about the Chinese satellite sighting in the southern Indian Ocean

Hand-written: A close up of the note passed to Mr Hussein. It is understood that the '30m' figure is incorrect

Radar specialists are pictured aboard a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft searching for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over the southern Indian Ocean

A New Zealand P3 Orion military plane was then sent to find it but failed, he said. 

John Young, manager of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's emergency response division, said today's search was mainly relying on human eyes.

‘Today is really a visual search again, and visual searches take some time. They can be difficult,’ he said.

Mr Barton said while the weather was not as good at the start of the day with sea fog and low cloud, it was due to clear up later.

China says it has located a large 72ft object in the Indian Ocean

A graphic from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), shows the approximate position of the objects seen floating in a Chinese satellite image in the southern Indian Ocean, and the area where a civilian plane reported sighting possible debris

Reporting: Journalists wait for Chinese relatives of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 outside the hall, during a meeting with airline officials at the Metro Park Lido Hotel in Beijing

Despite the frustrating lack of answers, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was upbeat.

‘Obviously we have now had a number of very credible leads and there is increasing hope - no more than hope, no more than hope - that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-fated aircraft,’ he told reporters in Papua New Guinea.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it had refined the search based on the latest clue from the Chinese satellite showing an object that appeared to be 72ft by 43ft.

It said the object's position also fell within yesterday's search area but it had not been sighted.

  

Australia says missing plane search to continue

Flight Lieutenant Jason Nichols on board a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, takes notes as they search for debris from missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 earlier today in the southern Indian Ocean

RAAF Flight officer Rayan Gharazeddine looks out from an Orion as he scans for signs of debris or wreckage

A Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force personnel looks out of their Lockheed P-3C Orion aircrafts before leaving for Australia to help with the search operations for MH370

Today's search has been split into two areas within the same proximity covering 22,800 sq miles. These areas have been determined by drift modelling, the AMSA said.

Malaysian Defensee Minister Hishammuddin Hussein put a message on his Twitter account asking those in churches around the country to offer a ‘prayer please’ for the passengers and crew on Fight 370.

More than 300 Malaysian cycling enthusiasts rode their bikes to the Kuala Lumpur airport to remember the people onboard the jet. 

The cyclists decorated the bikes with small Malaysian flags and stickers that read ‘Pray for MH370.’