Malaysia to release MH370 report, Prime Minister tells CNN

Malaysia to release MH370 report, Prime Minister tells CNN

By Josh Levs and Holly Yan, CNN
April 24, 2014 -- Updated 1816 GMT (0216 HKT)

Malaysian P.M. won't say plane is lost
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: The PM asked an investigation team to see what other information can be released
Families plan to bring questions to Boeing, the partner of a passenger tells CNN
Malaysia delivered a preliminary report to the U.N. but did not release it publicly
A metal object that washed ashore in Australia was not from missing plane
(CNN) -- Facing anger from families of Flight 370 passengers, Malaysia's Prime Minister said Thursday his government will release its preliminary report on the plane's disappearance.
In a TV exclusive, Najib Razak told CNN the report will be available to the public next week.

"I have directed an internal investigation team of experts to look at the report, and there is a likelihood that next week we could release the report," Najib said. Later in the interview with CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest, he gave a more definitive statement, saying the report will be released next week.

He also asked an internal investigation team to look into what other information may be released publicly next week, his office said.
In the CNN interview, Najib discussed why he is not yet officially declaring the flight -- and the 239 people on board -- lost.

The report has already been sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the U.N. body for global aviation, but not made available to the public.

Malaysian P.M.: MH 370 not deemed hostile 'We'd like the chance to sit down and talk' Bajc: There's no evidence MH370 crashed 'What's so confidential about the data?'

The ICAO told CNN about a safety recommendation in the report: Malaysia said the aviation world needs to look at real-time tracking of commercial aircraft. It's the same recommendation that was made after the Air France Flight 447 disaster in 2009.

Earlier Thursday, the partner of one of the passengers accused Malaysian authorities of seeming "to be choosing to treat us as if we are the enemy as opposed to an interested party in helping to solve this mystery."

"We need a fresh start here," Sarah Bajc, partner of passenger Philip Wood, said on CNN's "New Day."
"We've been sitting on opposite sides of the table. They have a briefing, they tell us what they know and we ask them questions. That's just kind of broken. I think we need to start from scratch and sit down and have a positive dialogue."

Families don't "necessarily believe" that the Malaysian authorities are "withholding any new information other than the facts that we've already asked for," she added.

A committee representing some of the Chinese families have posted 26 questions on the Chinese social media site Weibo.

Usually, such reports to the ICAO are public, Quest says.

"In most cases, the report is published because it's not a controversial document," he said. "It's a statement of facts -- what happened. And if there are any controversial or difficult facts, they can be redacted."

Malaysia has insisted it has nothing to hide and is working to find answers.

Families plan to demand answers from Boeing
While pushing Malaysian authorities for answers, "we're also extending our reach now," Bajc said. Some of the questions the families have, including technical questions, "we will be bringing directly to Boeing. Boeing has a shareholders meeting next week. And if we're not getting information directly from Malaysia Airlines and from the Malaysian government, we might as well try to go directly to the source.

"Boeing is a publicly traded company in the United States, and that puts them in a position of a little bit more fiduciary responsibility," she said.
The missing flight is a Boeing 777.

Asked for a response, Boeing sent CNN a written statement: "Our thoughts and deepest sympathies continue to be with the families and loved ones of those aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Boeing continues to serve as a technical adviser to the U.S. National Transportation (Safety) Board, and in that role we have been an active and engaged party to the investigation."

Ongoing search
MH370: Every piece of debris counts
Photos: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Object in MH370 search not likely of use 'Object of interest' found in Australia Inside one of the few black box labs
As an underwater drone keeps going up and back down, so do hopes that evidence of the plane may be found.

A metal object that washed ashore in Western Australia and sparked the curiosity of investigators Wednesday turned out to be unrelated.

And while the Bluefin-21 plunged into the Indian Ocean for its 12th mission Thursday, no one was certain the drone would find anything new.

"I think the chances are one out of 10," said Jules Jaffe, research oceanographer for the Marine Physical Laboratory.

The underwater probe has already scanned 90% of the designated search area, with no significant results.

Thursday marks day 48 of the search for the plane, which disappeared on March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people on board.

What's next?
Malaysian and Australian authorities are mapping out a long-term strategy for the search, which could go on for months or years.

An expanded search area might include the last 370 miles (595 kilometers) of the plane's flight path, ocean search specialist Rob McCallum said.
"If the idea is to go more strategic and investigate the entire aircraft flight path, maybe 15 miles or so either side, then you need a more strategic tool, and something like a deep-towed sonar that can provide a very large range indeed -- at the expense of resolution."

The use of a deep-towed submersible device called the Orion is overdue, said Geoffrey Thomas, managing director of AirlineRatings.com.
"That should be brought in as quickly as possible, again, from the United States."

He said it may be time to go back and revisit the calculations of where the plane may be, although officials have already been doing that.
"This is not an exact science," Thomas said. "We have to understand that."

Why so private?
Malaysia has not been known as a model of transparency. The same political party has ruled the country for the past 50 years, and the media is not completely free.

For its part, the Malaysian Cabinet has agreed to have an international team investigate the disappearance of Flight 370, the country's acting transportation minister said.
Hishammuddin Hussein said the names of the members will be announced next week. He also said the team will not be looking into the criminal aspects of the investigation, which remain under the Royal Malaysian Police.

"The main purpose is to evaluate and determine the cause of the accident," Hishammuddin said.

MH370 search: Images of debris mistaken for missing plane parts released

MH370 search: Images of debris mistaken for missing plane parts released
Date
April 24, 2014 - 9:41PM

Tasha Campbell, Jemillah Bickerton and Aleisha Orr

MH370 search: Debris found on WA beach is 'not part of a Boeing'
Police measuring the debris. Photo: Mat Franklin

Fairfax Media has received photos of the debris found near Augusta which investigators have since confirmed is not linked to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

Mat Franklin and his son discovered the debris on Easter Monday four kilometres from Augusta. 

Mr Franklin went to work on Tuesday before trying to report his findings.

"It looked pretty distinctly like a piece of aircraft. I didn't want to raise any alarms, I just wanted to get an opinion," he said.

Mr Franklin decided to get advice from the Busselton Aero Club on Wednesday who then passed it on the Busselton police.

Senior Sergeant Steve Principe said the Busselton station received the object between 2.30 and 3pm on Wednesday afternoon.

It was from there that the possible link to the MH370 arose.

Information was then passed on to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) for further investigation.

The bureau announced on Thursday morning that there was no link to the missing MH370 aircraft but investigations were still ongoing.

"They've had the top forensics examining it and should have been able to tell what it is by now," Mr Franklin said.

"I still believe it is a piece of aircraft because they won't give it back to me."

Whilst the debris have been confirmed as unrelated to MH370, ocean experts say it is likely that debris from aircrafts could wash up on the WA coast if it's caught up in the Leeuwin Current.

This isn't the first time unusual objects have washed up on the shore at a beach at, or near, Augusta.

Last year the navy investigated after an object initially believed to be a bomb wasreported found at a beach in Augusta.

Augusta abalone diver Joel Veitch also came across a blue marlin approximately 2.5 metres long and weighing 250 kilograms dead in the water 100m south of the new marine wall in Augusta.

Malaysia Airlines: Pilots of the missing plane; suspected in 'deliberate action?'

Malaysia Airlines: Pilots of the missing plane; suspected in 'deliberate action?'

By Ben Brumfield and Pamela Brown, CNN
March 17, 2014 -- Updated 1318 GMT (2118 HKT)

Who were the men who flew flight 370
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: By the time of last voice contact, something was likely already awry
U.S. officials indicated the jet may have flown for hours after last contact with the pilots
Pilot's duties: Aviate, navigate, communicate; communication cut off
Was a third person with them in the cockpit? One pilot has let visitors in before
(CNN) -- "All right, good night."

Those are the last words heard from the cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Who said them? Was it the captain or his first mate? Or someone else in the cockpit with them?
Officials in Washington suspect it was either of the pilots -- and that one or both was involved in MH370's disappearance on March 8.

And according to the Malaysian Prime Minister's account of events, by the time those words were spoken, someone had likely already taken steps to alter the flight's path -- intentionally.

Malaysian investigators are not ruling out a hijacking by other actors. But they have searched the homes of the pilot and co-pilot.

Information from international and Malaysian officials indicate that the Boeing 777-200ER passenger jet may have flown for hours after that last voice contact with the pilots.

Who are the missing Flight 370 pilots? Police search pilot's home Did the pilot have a plan? What happened in the cockpit of MH370?

The duty of all pilots is to aviate, navigate and communicate, in that order, an aviation expert has told CNN.

Someone may have kept aviating, but either they couldn't -- or wouldn't -- communicate.
This is what we know about the 53-year-old pilot captain and his 27-year-old first mate.

Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah

Police had been outside his Malaysia home every day since the plane vanished, a source told CNN. But had not gone inside until recently.

When they did, they probably found a flight simulator there. In a YouTube video he apparently posted, Zaharie can be seen sitting in front of one.
And in a German online forum for simulator enthusiasts, X-Sim.de, there is a post from November 2012 in his name that says he built it himself.

"About a month ago I finish assembly of FSX and FS9 with 6 monitors." The message was signed Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah BOEING 777 MALAYSIA AIRLINES.

FSX and FS9 are over-the-counter flight simulator games made by Microsoft.

On Friday, the CEO of Malaysia Airlines said that everyone is allowed to pursue their hobbies.
Zaharie, a pilot with 18,365 flight hours under his belt, is reportedly also a flight instructor.
On the same YouTube channel, Zaharie gives workman's tips on tinkering with a refrigerator and an air conditioner.

CNN cannot verify the authenticity of the social media posts.

1st Officer Fariq Ab Hamid

CNN's aviation correspondent Richard Quest once visited MH370's 1st Officer Fariq Ab Hamid in a Malaysia Airlines cockpit, when he was training. Quest watched him land the plane under supervision of a senior pilot in February.
The captain described Fariq's landing as textbook perfect.

Fariq joined Malaysia Airlines in 2007. He has 2,763 flying hours behind him and was transitioning to the Boeing 777-200 after finishing training in a flight simulator.

As with Zaharie, not much is known to the public about Fariq. But Quest was not the only guest who had joined him in the cockpit.

Passenger Jonti Roos got an invitation to check out the cockpit during a flight from Thailand to Malaysia -- one that Fariq was flying with another pilot.

She took photos and said Farid and his colleague smoked in the cockpit. After MH 370's disappearance, she reported her experience to journalists.

Was MH370 stolen? 'Significant likelihood' plane in ocean Officials: MH370 may have flew for hours Expert: Mechanical failure not a factor
Malaysia Airlines was aghast. "We are shocked by these allegations," the airline said.

Such a practice would be illegal on U.S. carriers after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, but not necessarily so on international ones, Quest said.

Exploring the possibilities
Does Roos' story open up the possibility that a third or fourth person could have joined Zaharie and Fariq in the cockpit?

Like the exact whereabouts of Flight 370, that's yet unknown. But investigators believe that somebody must have done something.

Not long after the flight took off from Kuala Lumpur communications systems were disabled, the plane's transponder was turned off, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said Saturday.

That last device is situated between the pilots and can be shut off with a twist of the wrist. For a pilot to turn it off would seem reckless because the information it transmits gives the plane vital protection. It helps people on the ground locate the plane.

Someone would have to knowû how to do it and also know the plane would lose that protection.
Then someone in the cockpit said good night.
And the apparent lack of visibility on radar? "Airline pilots are not trained for radar avoidance," said aviation expert Keith Wolzinger, a former 777 pilot. They like to stay on the radar, because -- again -- it protects their plane.

Only military pilots, he said, are usually keen on avoiding radar.

The father of a passenger on the missing plane is hoping for an outcome that would sound shocking under normal circumstances.

"I hope the plane was hijacked, because then, at least, there is hope," Li from Hebei Province said. He did not give his full name.

Li is waiting at a Beijing hotel with dozens of other passengers' family members awaiting word on the fate of their loved ones.

"But if the worst happened then I will have no meaning in my life. This is my only son," Li said.
As he walked away, he bent his head and cried.
READ: Missing Malaysia airliner: Questions and answers

READ: Transponder's fate may prove key to solving Malaysia Airlines puzzle
MAPS: What happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370?

Missing flight MH370: Robotic sub first mission cut short

Missing flight MH370: Robotic sub first mission cut short

The robotic submersible Bluefin-21 exceeded its depth safety limit, as Phil Mercer reports from Perth

A robotic submarine deployed to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the southern Indian Ocean has had its first mission cut short.

The Bluefin-21 was sent to search the sea floor for wreckage after signals believed to be consistent with "black box" flight recorders were detected.

But the drone exceeded its operating limit of 4,500m (15,000ft) and was brought back to the surface.

It was due to return later on Tuesday if weather conditions permitted.

"To account for inconsistencies with the sea floor, the search profile is being adjusted to extend the sonar search for as long as possible," an update from the US Navy - which operates the Bluefin-21 - said.

Flight MH370 went missing on 8 March with 239 people on board. It was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it lost contact with air traffic controllers over the South China Sea.

Malaysian officials believe, based on satellite data, that it ended its flight thousands of kilometres off course, in seas west of the Australian city of Perth.

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US Navy Captain Mark Matthews says the search had to be aborted due to a programming "oversight"
'Operating depth'
Amid a major international search, an Australian navy vessel last week detected four acoustic signals using a US Navy towed pinger locator. Officials believe these could come from the missing plane's flight recorders.

No signals have been detected since 8 April, however, leading to fears that the recorders' batteries - which last about a month - have run out.

On Monday, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who heads the agency co-ordinating the search, said it was time to deploy the Bluefin-21 to begin its search of the sea floor. It set off on its first mission on Monday night.

"After completing around six hours of its mission, Bluefin-21 exceeded its operating depth limit of 4,500m and its built in safety feature returned it to the surface," the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre said in a statement.

"Bluefin-21 is planned to redeploy later today when weather conditions permit."

The US Navy said in a later update that no objects of interest were found when the six hours of data were downloaded and analysed.

Continue reading the main story
MH370 - Facts at a glance

8 March: Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight carrying 239 people disappears
Plane's transponder, which communicates with ground radar, was switched off as it left Malaysian airspace
Satellite 'pings' indicate plane was still flying seven hours after satellite contact was lost
24 March: Based on new calculations, Malaysian PM says "beyond reasonable doubt" that plane crashed in southern Indian Ocean with no survivors
What we know
Deep sea challenge
Bluefin-21 is an almost 5m-long vehicle that can create a sonar map of the sea floor. On Monday officials said each mission was expected to last 24 hours, with 16 hours spent on the ocean floor, four hours' diving and resurfacing time, and four hours to download data.

The submersible has a safety feature that brings it to the surface if it exceeds its performance capabilities, however.

The sea where the Bluefin-21 is searching is estimated to be about 4,500m deep, but experts say there could be variations on the sea floor.

Australian officials have said previously that they are confident they are searching in the right area for the missing plane.

But ACM Houston warned on Monday that the search of the sea floor could be a long, painstaking process that might not yield results.

He said that other, larger vehicles that could go deeper than the Bluefin-21 were being looked into, but it depended on "the outcome of what we find when we go down and take a look".

Officials have no idea yet why the plane diverted so far from its intended flight path. Investigators are looking at options including hijacking, mechanical failure, sabotage and pilot action.

Recovering the flight recorders is seen as key to understanding what happened to the plane.

Missing plane MH370 : Abbott syas signal rapidly fading

Missing plane MH370: Abbott says signal 'rapidly fading'

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Prime Minister Abbott said officials want to narrow the search area before deploying a submersible drone
Continue reading the main story
MH370 mystery

Ocean maps problem
Costs of the search
Recovery hope boost
Searchers hear signals
Signals in remote seas thought to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are "rapidly fading" and finding the jet will be a "massive, massive task", Australia's PM says.

Tony Abbott said he was confident "pings" detected by search teams were from the aircraft's black boxes.

But no new signals have been confirmed in the search area since Tuesday.

"No one should underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," Mr Abbott warned.

Up to 10 planes and 14 ships were searching the area in the Indian Ocean on Saturday

A woman shows a photo of her father, who was on board. MH370 was carrying 239 people when it vanished
Correspondents say Mr Abbott appeared to be couching his comments from Friday, in which he said he was "very confident" that signals heard by an Australian search ship were from the missing Boeing 777.

Continue reading the main story
MH370 - Facts at a glance

8 March: Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight carrying 239 people disappears
Plane's transponder, which communicates with ground radar, was switched off as it left Malaysian airspace
Satellite 'pings' indicate plane was still flying seven hours after satellite contact was lost
24 March: Based on new calculations, Malaysian PM says "beyond reasonable doubt" that plane crashed in southern Indian Ocean with no survivors
What we know
The search for flight MH370
Speaking during a visit to China, Australia's leader said teams were hoping to track further signals in a section of the southern Indian Ocean before shifting the search operation to the seabed.

"Trying to locate anything 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) beneath the surface of the ocean, about a 1,000km (620 miles) from land is a massive, massive task," he said.

"Given that the signal from the black box is rapidly fading, what we are now doing is trying to get as many detections as we can so that we can narrow the search area down to as small an area as possible."

Mr Abbott said a submersible drone would be sent to conduct a sonar search of the seabed once search teams were confident with the area identified - but he refused to say when that might be.

After analysing satellite data, officials believe the plane with 239 people aboard flew off course for an unknown reason and went down in the southern Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia.

Those leading the search fear that time is running out because the batteries that power the pings from the black box only last about a month, and that window has already passed.

Chinese planes assisting in the search are operating out of Australian airports

Despite the technology at the search teams' disposal, the naked eye is also crucial in the hunt for wreckage
Two sounds heard a week ago by the Australian ship Ocean Shield, towing the ping locator, were determined to be consistent with the signals emitted from the black boxes. Two more pings were detected in the same general area on Tuesday.

On Thursday an Australian aircraft picked up an audio signal in the same area as the four previous detections but officials now believe it is unlikely to be related to the black boxes

The underwater search zone is currently a 1,300 sq km (500 miles) patch of the seabed, about the size of Los Angeles.

The submersible drone, Bluefin 21, takes six times longer to cover the same area as the ping locator and it would take about six weeks to two months for it to search the current zone.

Complicating matters is the depth of the seabed in that area. The signals are emanating from 4,500m (15,000 ft) below the surface, which is the deepest the Bluefin can dive. The search coordination centre said it was considering options in case a deeper-diving sub was needed.

Faltering search
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on 8 March when it lost contact with air traffic controllers and vanished from radar.

Of the 239 people on board, 153 were Chinese. Many relatives have been angered by what they perceive to be the Malaysian authorities' early misguided response to the flight's disappearance.

The plane disappeared over the South China Sea, between Malaysia and Vietnam, but it was a week before the search was widened based on evidence taken from radar and satellite tracking.

Officials are still no clearer as to why the plane strayed so far off course.

The backgrounds of both passengers and crew have been scrutinised as officials consider hijacking, sabotage, pilot action or mechanical failure as possible causes.

Malaysia Airlines MH370 : New possible pings detected in jet search confirmed, underwater signal is 5th pickup up during Indian Ocean hunt for jet

Malaysia Airlines MH370: New possible 'pings' detected in jet searchIf confirmed, underwater signal is 5th picked up during Indian Ocean hunt for jet
Apr 10, 2014 11:15 AM ET
The Associated Press

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 search continues
PHOTOS

An Australian aircraft Thursday detected what may be the fifth signal coming from a man-made device deep in the Indian Ocean, adding to hopes that searchers will soon pinpoint the object's location and send down a robotic vehicle to confirm if it is a black box from the missing Malaysian jet.

The Australian air force P-3 Orion, which has been dropping sound-locating buoys into the water near where the original sounds were heard, picked up a "possible signal" that may be from a man-made source, said Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search off Australia's west coast.

"The acoustic data will require further analysis overnight," Houston said in a statement.

Malaysia plane MH370 : Possible new signal in search

Malaysia plane MH370: Possible new signal in search

The possible signal was detected by an Australia P-3 Orion searching the southern Indian Ocean
Continue reading the main story
MH370 mystery

Ocean maps problem
Costs of the search
Recovery hope boost
Searchers hear signals
A plane searching for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has detected a possible new signal in the southern Indian Ocean, Australian officials say.

An Australian P-3 Orion aircraft picked up the signal in the same area where an Australian vessel detected audio pings earlier this week, officials said.

The signal would require further analysis, but could have been from a "man-made source", officials said.

Flight MH370 vanished on 8 March, with 239 people on board.

The search zone was tightened on Thursday after a US navy "towed pinger locator" picked up audio signals in the area, sparking hopes that the plane's black box was in the area.

Australian vessel Ocean Shield picked up four acoustic signals in the area, twice over the weekend and twice on Tuesday.

Speaking after the latest possible signal was detected, retired Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, who is leading search efforts, said: "The acoustic data will require further analysis overnight but shows potential of being from a man-made source."

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Hishammuddin Hussein: "I know there will be answers - I know we will find the plane - it's just a matter of when"
Up to 14 planes and 13 ships are involved in Thursday's search, scouring an area of 57,923 sq km (22 300 sq miles), around 2,280km (1,400 miles) north-west of Perth. It is the smallest designated area in the hunt to date.

Planes have dropped buoys equipped with hydrophone listening devices into the water to help pick up signals.

The batteries on the black box only last about a month, so teams need to work quickly to track the audio signals before they stop broadcasting.

'Nothing to hide'
Malaysia's acting transport minister has defended the investigation in an interview for BBC News, his first with a major Western broadcaster.

Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia had "nothing to hide", and he was "cautious" over the audio signals picked up by search teams.

"We've been following all sorts of leads from the South China Sea to the Straits of Malacca to the Andaman Sea," he said. "We have to be cautious because the families' emotions are still very raw and I've been through this rollercoaster ride."

Continue reading the main story
MH370 - Facts at a glance

8 March: Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight carrying 239 people disappears
Plane's transponder, which communicates with ground radar, was switched off as it left Malaysian airspace
Satellite 'pings' indicate plane was still flying seven hours after satellite contact was lost
24 March: Based on new calculations, Malaysian PM says "beyond reasonable doubt" that plane crashed in southern Indian Ocean with no survivors
What we know
The search for flight MH370
Malaysia has come under criticism for its handling of the search, with families of the passengers on the plane accusing the authorities of a lack of transparency.

The investigation came under further scrutiny after it emerged that the final words from the plane were "good night Malaysian three seven zero", and not "all right, good night", as previously reported by the government.

However, Hishammuddin Hussein defended his handling of the search, saying the transcript had been released and the discrepancy in the words didn't "really matter".

"We have formed the committees, international experts are on board, we've got panels of inquiries [on the search]," he said. "Malaysia has got nothing to hide."

He added that the full cost of the search for the plane, and which countries would bear the cost, were not yet clear, but that the search cost was "peanuts" compared to the costs of other international crises.

"How much is Ukraine costing everybody?" he asked. "How much has it been for Syria and it's still unfolding? How much does it cost the people of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Iraq? Not only in dollars and cents but in lives. Here it is peanuts."

Officials say satellite data show the plane, which was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, ended up in the southern Indian Ocean, far from its original flight path.

Investigators still do not know why MH370 strayed so far off course, after disappearing over the South China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam.

The backgrounds of both passengers and crew have been scrutinised as officials consider hijacking, sabotage, pilot action or mechanical failure as possible causes.

The search zone for the missing jet is narrowing

WORLD AVIATION
The Search Zone for the Missing Jet Is Narrowing
Charlie Campbell @charliecamp6ell  5:41 AM ET

A submarine built by Bluefin Robotics is lowered into the water by a systems engineer in Quincy, Mass., April 9, 2014
Scott Eisen—AP
Investigators have dropped underwater sonar equipment in the Indian Ocean to again detect the pings thought to come from the plane's black box

The search zone for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is now at its most focused yet, as investigators continue to express hope that the hunt for the Boeing 777's wreckage may soon be at an end, while admitting that serious challenges remain.

Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search in distant waters off Australia's west coast, said Wednesday that he was "optimistic" that the wreckage would be found "in a matter of days," and Thursday saw underwater sonar systems known as sonobuoys deployed in an attempt to collect more signals from the doomed aircraft's black boxes.

"We are still a long way to go, but things are more positive than they were some time ago," Australian Transport Safety Board chief Martin Dolan told Reuters on Thursday.

Two signals were heard by Australian navy vessel Ocean Shield Tuesday — for five minutes and 32 seconds, and then for around seven minutes — on top of two detections over the weekend.

Now a modified Royal Australian Air Force P-3 Orion surveillance plane is deploying up to 84 sonobuoys that can transmit data to search aircraft via radio.

"What we want to do is maximize the time that may still be left on those black box batteries so we will keep searching with the towed pinger locator," Commander Mark Williams, of the U.S 7th Fleet, which is assisting efforts, told CNN.

"We've done an incredible job decreasing the search area to a pretty small, defined area. But with a side-scan sonar, which works pretty slowly and methodically, it's still pretty big."

If the batteries fail before the black box recorders are located — and they are already three days past their 30-day standard lifespan — finding the wreckage in water 2.8 miles (4,500 km) deep becomes much more arduous.

On Thursday the search for visible debris continued on an area narrowed to 22,000 sq miles (58,000 sq km) — slightly smaller than West Virginia — with up to 10 military aircraft, four civil aircraft and 13 ships operating about 1,400 miles (2,280 km) northwest of Perth.

Aircraft and ships reported spotting a large number of objects during Wednesday's search, but only a small number were recoverable, and none confirmed to be from MH370.

Until wreckage is found, there can be no closure for families of the 239 passengers and crew. "Things look promising but it's nowhere near the end until we find a bit of the airplane," David Newbery, an aircraft accident investigator, tells TIME.

Some have speculated that the lack of wreckage may indicate the plane could remain relatively intact, although Newbery believes this more to do with unpredictable currents and not knowing where to look.

"Hitting water in an airplane is like hitting concrete, so if it was a controlled ditching it is conceivable that not many bits fell off," he says, "but anything other than that and there's inevitably going to be wreckage."

MH370 vanished soon after departing Kuala Lumpur for Beijing early March 8 and investigators still have no idea why it flew so drastically off-course to apparently crash in the southern Indian Ocean.

MH370 : Australian ship unable to detect further ping from missing Malaysia Airlines plane

MH370: Australian ship unable to detect further 'pings' from missing Malaysian Airlines plane – video

Source: Reuters
Tuesday 8 April 2014 10.55 BST

An Australian ship that detected possible pings from the black box recorders on flight MH370 has been unable to detect further signals. At a press conference in Perth on Tuesday, Australian defence minister David Johnston says search crews are throwing everything at this complex task. Head of the Australian search team Angus Houston says efforts to pick up more signals will continue

Missing Malaysia plane : How muçh will MH370 search cost

In the month since Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, search and rescue teams have patrolled areas of the southern Indian ocean, thousands of kilometres apart.

Planes, ships and submarines have all been deployed.

China, Australia, Malaysia, the US, the UK New Zealand, Japan and South Korea have all contributed to the search. So how much is it costing, and who pays?

Malaysia has refused to be drawn. Acting Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein told reporters that the cost of mounting the search was "immaterial" when set against the need to bring solace to the families of the missing.

But mounting a search operation on this scale, and for this length of time, does not come cheap. The bill so far probably runs to £20-25m ($33-42m), estimates Peter Roberts, senior research fellow in sea power and maritime studies at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi).

This includes the cost of fuel, spare parts, and transporting supplies, as well as the relocation of staff - even costs such as cancelled leave can push up the final bill.

China is one of more than 20 countries contributing to the search for the missing Malaysian plane
'Sense of brotherhood'
Most of the financial burden will be borne by the countries who have contributed their forces.

For example, Australia deployed a navy replenishment vessel, HMAS Success, two weeks ago. It costs AU$550,000 a day to operate, says the Department of Defence, so that comes to $7.7m ($7.2m; £4.3m) already.

And that is just a single ship. HMAS Toowoomba, which has also been involved, costs AU$380,000.

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Saving life at sea is the right thing to do”

Peter Roberts
Senior research fellow, Rusi
The US Department of Defense set aside $4m to help the search: between 8 and 24 March, it spent $3.2m, a spokesman told reporters in Washington.

The UK has sent a survey ship, HMS Echo, which is equipped with sensitive underwater detection equipment. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is not yet putting a price tag on the British role.

"The operation to locate flight MH370 is ongoing as is the work to fully identify the costs," the MoD told the BBC in a statement.

In the end, the cost of sending HMS Echo to the waters off Australia will be met from Treasury contingency funds, says Mr Roberts. Governments will take the costs within their budget "and accept they have to do it".

The ship will stay there as long as it has a role to play, he says: "Mariners have got a very strong sense of brotherhood: saving life at sea is the right thing to do."

Once the search is completed, attention is likely to turn to improving the tracking technology.

"It is hard for anyone to imagine that we can't continuously track aircraft anywhere in the world," says Mr Roberts.

There, the most expensive part of the process will not be the development or fitting of any technology, but the cost of getting it accepted and standardised by aviation regulators around the world.

The most expensive salvage operation in aviation history came after an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed in the Atlantic in 2009.

After multiple searches over three years, the final bill came to 32m euros (£26m; $44m).

For now, Australia has joined Malaysia in downplaying the cost factor: Prime Minister Tony Abbott has vowed to ''spend what we need to spend to get this job done."

He has called it "an act of international citizenship on Australia's part,'' but added: ''At some point there might need to be a reckoning''.

Chinese vessel detects pulse signal in ocean in hunt for flight MH370

Chinese vessel detects 'pulse signal' in ocean in hunt for flight MH370
But experts urge caution, with no link confirmed to black box of missing Malaysia Airlines plane
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 05 April, 2014, 3:31pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 06 April, 2014, 4:22am
Teddy Ng in Kuala Lumpur
teddy.ng@scmp.com

The Chinese patrol and rescue vessel Haixun 01 in the southern Indian Ocean. It has been taking part in the search for flight MH370 since March 20. Photo: Xinhua
A Chinese patrol vessel in the southern Indian Ocean has detected a pulse signal that could be from the black box recorder of flight MH370, state media said yesterday.

A black box detector deployed by Haixun 01 picked up a pulse signal of 37.5 kHz per second at around 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, Xinhua reported.

View MH370: possible locations in a larger map

But officials and experts urged caution as there was still no confirmed link between the signals and the black box from the Malaysia Airlines plane, now missing for more than four weeks.

Chinese search planes also reported spotting white objects in the ocean.

Search chief Angus Houston, head of the Joint Agency Co-ordination Centre based in Perth, said: "White objects were sighted on the surface about 90 kilometres from the detection area.

"However, there is no confirmation at this stage that the signals and the objects are related to the missing aircraft."

The underwater locator beacon on the black box of a Boeing 777 can transmit an ultrasonic pulse from as deep as 4.3 kilometres under water.

But the signal will be silenced when the battery runs out - usually after about 30 days.

As many as 13 planes and 11 ships are involved in the hunt for MH370 - which vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board - in an area 1,700 kilometres northwest of Perth.

Li Jie, a researcher at the PLA Navy's Military Academy, said the detection was an important breakthrough. "Only the black box will release such a pulse signal," he said.

"If no other plane has crashed in that location then, basically, we can say that flight MH370 is located somewhere around these waters," he said.

Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo told state-run CCTV that it was highly likely the signal was from the black box of MH370.

"The area is not a major route for commercial jets and vessels, and therefore the chance that the signal is from another crashed airliner is minimal," he said.

But Australian Defence Minister David Johnston urged caution after several false leads in what has been an "emotional roller coaster" for the families of those on board the plane.

He said: "This is not the first time we've had something that has turned out to be very disappointing. There's a huge chance of a false positive here."

Watch: How does a 'black box' work?

The Chinese Maritime Rescue Centre also warned there was no confirmed link between the pulse signal and the missing plane.

Chris Yates, an aviation security consultant based in Britain, warned that the black box would now be in a "rundown state" with its battery being exhausted.

"The range of the transmission from the black box will have decreased significantly over such a period of time," he said.

"That will cast doubts on the veracity of the claimed findings."

He added that the position where the signals were detected seemed to be further north than the current search area.

In Beijing, relatives of passengers on the flight said they did not believe the pulse signal was from the plane. One said: "We should rather wait for official confirmation than listen to unconfirmed sources of information."

Another family member said: "I just hope this is not true. I won't believe it until they have found the wreckage and bodies."

Haixun 01 was one of the first batch of Chinese vessels sent to help in the search for MH370.

It is the largest and most advanced China-produced patrol and rescue vessel and arrived in the southern Indian Ocean on March 20.

MH370 : Pulse signal found in search for missing Malaysia Airlines Plane

MH370: ‘Pulse signal found’ in search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane
Mark Molloy and Metro News Reporter
Saturday 5 Apr 2014

A Chinese ship involved in the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane MH370 has detected a pulse signal in the southern Indian Ocean (Picture: EPA / Jason Reed)
A ‘pulse signal’ has been detected by a Chinese ship involved in the multinational search effort for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, it has been reported.

A black box detector deployed by the vessel, Haixun 01, picked up a signal at 37.5Hz per second today in southern Indian Ocean waters, according to multiple sources.

The reports said it was not established whether the signal was related to the missing jet.

It was picked up at around 25 degrees south latitude and 101 degrees east longitude, according to China’s official news agency Xinhua.

It could be a possible indicator of the underwater beacon from a plane’s black box.

Xinhua further said a Chinese air force plane spotted a number of white floating objects in the search area.

The Australian agency co-ordinating the search would not immediately comment but Malaysian government sources were reported to have confirmed the news.

Malaysian defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein at a MH370 press conference (Picture: EPA)
Search teams trying to find the flight recorders from the missing jet criss-crossed another patch of the Indian Ocean today, four weeks after the airliner vanished while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

Earlier, Malaysia’s defence minister said the search for the missing jet will continue ‘with the same level of vigour and intensity’.

Hishammuddin Hussein pledged: ‘We will continue to focus, with all our efforts, on finding the aircraft.’

He said there are no more new satellite images or data that can provide new leads, and the focus is now fully on the ocean search.

Distraught: A relative of one of the passengers on board doomed flight MH370 after hearing news that no one survived (Picture: Reuters)
A multinational team is desperately trying to find debris floating in the water or faint sound signals from the recorders that could lead them to the aircraft.

Beacons in the black boxes emit ‘pings’ so they can be more easily found, but the batteries only last about a month.

And officials say the more time that passes before any floating wreckage is found, the harder it will be to find the plane itself

MH370 : Chinese patrol ship detects ping near suspected location of plane

MH370: Chinese patrol ship detects ping near suspected location of plane

Haixun 01 records signal with same frequency as black box pulse as search continues for missing Malaysian Airlines flight

A pinger locator sits on an Australian ship in the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the black box of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. Photograph: Reuters
Tania Branigan in Beijing
Saturday 5 April 2014 17.11 BST

A Chinese patrol ship has detected an electronic pulse close to where the missing Malaysia Airlines plane is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, state media announced late on Saturday.

Australian search authorities said such a signal would be "consistent" with a black box, but both they and China's state news agency, Xinhua, stressed there was no conclusive evidence linking the "ping" to flight MH370 as the search entered its fifth week. Xinhua, which has a reporter on board the vessel, said the pulse had been detected by the patrol ship Haixun's black box detector at around 25 degrees south and 101 degrees east, within the 84,000-sq-mile search zone. The pulse had a frequency of 37.5kHz per second – the same as emitted by flight recorders. Dozens of ships and planes from 26 countries, including the British nuclear submarine HMS Tireless, are racing to find the black box recorders before their batteries run out. No wreckage has yet been found in the area, despite a massive international hunt.

Meanwhile, Xinhua also said that a Chinese air force plane involved in the search had spotted a number of floating objects in the search area. It was not clear whether these were close to where the pulse signal was reportedly detected.

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The Beijing-bound Boeing 777 disappeared in the early hours of 8 March, shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, with 239 people on board. Investigators have used analysis of the plane's communication with satellites to identify the search area in the southern Indian Ocean, just over 1,000 miles north-west of Perth.

Xinhua's announcement is the first potentially positive sign in the race against time to find the aircraft's black box. Earlier on Saturday, Angus Houston, who heads the Australian centre co-ordinating the international operation, warned that it was "getting pretty close" to the point at which the electronic beacons on the flight data and cockpit voice recorders would stop emitting signals. They are certified to send out pulses for 30 days, although experts say the batteries can often last for another 14 days or so.

Anish Patel, president of Dukane Seacom – which has said it made the beacons for the flight data and cockpit voice recorders on board MH370 – told CNN that the pulse was "identical" to the standard beacon frequency. A reporter for Chinese state television said that the signal was heard for around a minute-and-a-half.

David Gallo, who helped to lead the hunt for Air France flight 447 in the Atlantic in 2009, told the Observer that it was not unusual for sound to come and go, because factors such as thermal currents can affect how far it carries.

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The Air France search saw a false alarm over a possible signal from the black box, he cautioned. But he added that in this case the pulse was unlikely to occur naturally. "It could very well be one of the beacons," he said.

Gallo, who works at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said that even if pinger locators could not detect the precise location, they might narrow it to an area of four square miles, at which point teams would map the sea floor using robots and towed systems. He added: "When you find [recorders] there is a sense of satisfaction, but it is also a very sombre moment … It brings the end that the families and loved ones of passengers have been praying and hoping would not come."

Earlier in the day, Xinhua announced that Chinese planes had photographed white floating objects in the search zone, but there have already been a string of similar false alarms.

The decision to release the news via Chinese media rather than the Australian agency set up to co-ordinate the operation is likely to cause friction. CNN said an Australian source connected to the search said the centre had learned of the alert several hours earlier but had not been able to communicate directly with the Haixun. While other search crews report possible evidence connected to the flight directly to the joint research centre, the Chinese teams report it to Beijing first.

It also said an Australian Defence Force spokesman described the detection of the pulse as "an anomaly of interest".

More than 150 of those on board the flight were Chinese nationals; China has contributed several ships and vessels to the search.

Earlier, Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's defence minister and acting transport minister, told a briefing in Kuala Lumpur that the expense of the search was immaterial compared to the importance of establishing what happened for the relatives of those on board. "I can only speak for Malaysia, and Malaysia will not stop looking for MH370," he said.

The minister announced that an independent investigator would be appointed to oversee three teams pursuing the main lines of inquiry: the plane's airworthiness, including its maintenance, structures and systems; operational issues, such as flight recorders and meteorology; and medical and human factors.

Investigators believe MH370 was deliberately diverted from its course, but experts say that without the flight data and cockpit voice recorders there is little hope of establishing who was responsible and why. Even then, they caution that the information may not shed much light on the mystery. Cockpit voice recorders hold audio from only the last two hours of the flight and the critical events are likely to have occurred much earlier.

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MH370 : Pilots simulator contains five practive runways near indian ocean

MH370: Pilot's Simulator 'Contains Five Practice Runways near Indian Ocean'
By Vasudevan Sridharan
March 18, 2014 05:59 GMT

Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER flight MH318 to Beijing sits on the tarmac as passengers are reflected on the glass at the boarding gate at Kuala Lumpur International AirportReuters
Investigators who examined the simulator belonging to Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, are said to have found several runways near the Indian Ocean.

The home-made simulator of the pilot has been loaded with runways of at least five airports in and around the Indian Ocean, where the search for the vanished Boeing 777 is gaining momentum.

"The simulation programmes are based on runways at the Male International Airport in Maldives, an airport owned by the United States (Diego Garcia), and three other runways in India and Sri Lanka, all have runway lengths of 1,000 metres," an unidentified investigation source told local Malay daily Berita Harian.

Timeline
Malaysia Airlines' Missing Flight MH370: Timeline of an Air Mystery
At an earlier press conference on Monday, Malaysia's defence minister and acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein denied speculation that the plane could have landed in the US military base Diego Garcia.

Earlier, the New York-based non-profit radio station WNYC released a map, based on the jetliner's duration of flight as revealed by authorities. The map contained 634 potential runways in 26 different countries and suggested that, if the plane was hjiacked, the hijackers could have landed at any of them.

Malaysian authorities are also looking at a possible pilot suicide.

The search for the missing plane enters the 11th day as the aircraft, with 239 people on board, remains elusive without any clue as to its whereabouts.

FLIGHT MH370 FACTBOX

Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport en route to Beijing at 00:41 on Saturday 8 March (16:41 GMT Friday).

About 50 minutes later, the aircraft lost contact with air traffic control.

No distress call was made.

On board, there were 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 14 countries. That included 153 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.

Two Iranian male passengers, Pouria Nour Mohammad Mahread and Delavar Syed Mohammad Reza, were travelling on fake passports. Neither had any apparent links to terrorist groups.

No debris from the plane has been found in the international search.

Last confirmed communication with Indian Ocean satellite occurred at 08:11am, meaning plane continued to fly for seven hours after radar signal was lost.

At least 25 countries, including China, the US and Singapore, have now joined in the search for the missing plane.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 : Mystery of missing plane may never be solved police warn

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370: Mystery of missing plane ‘may never be solved,’ police warn

Officers have made little progress with their investigation despite scrutinising the provenance of every piece of cargo

A Chinese relative of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 waits for the new information at a hotel in Beijing






367
By KATHY MARKS
Thursday 03 April 2014

With as little as two days left in which to recover the black box of Flight MH370, Malaysian police have warned that the mystery of the plane's disappearance nearly four weeks ago may never be solved.

The country's Prime Minister, Najib Razak, who visited the headquarters of the multinational search in Perth today, promised relatives of the 239 passengers and crew that “we will not rest until answers are… found”. However, batteries in the locator beacons of flight recorders only last about 30 days, which means MH370's will die next Monday, or even this weekend.

The hunt for wreckage of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 continued in the Indian Ocean, with two British Royal Navy vessels joining seven other ships and eight planes. But since the search switched to the remote waters a fortnight ago, not a single piece of debris linked to the doomed flight has been found, despite exhaustive efforts.

Police, meanwhile, have yet to make any progress with their criminal investigation. Malaysia's most senior police officer, Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar, said that every possible angle was being scrutinised, including whether meals served during the Beijing-bound flight had been poisoned.
Officers were also scrutinising the provenance of every piece of cargo - even a consignment of mangosteens, an Asian tropical fruit. “We had to find out where the mangosteens came from,” said Mr Khalid. “We tracked down who plucked the fruits, who packed them and shipped them out, who put them on the plane. Imagine how many people we must interview, and that was just the mangosteens.”

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines plane
The enormity of the task facing search teams was acknowledged by Mr Najib, who described it as “a gargantuan challenge”, and by the Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, who called the search “the most difficult in human history”.

While Mr Abbott, who hosted his Malaysian counterpart in Perth, said that Australia was “throwing everything we have at it”, he also warned that “we cannot be certain of ultimate success” - a contrast with previous statements in which he pledged that if there was wreckage to be found, Australia would find it.

The search force was bolstered by Britain's HMS Echo and HMS Tireless, the latter a nuclear-powered submarine with advanced underwater search capability. The hope is that it may detect signals emitted by MH370's black box - the flight data and cockpit voice recorders which hold the key to why the plane diverted radically off course soon after leaving Kuala Lumpur on 8 March.

Also on its way to the search zone, which was refined today to about 1,680 kilometres north-west of Perth, is the Ocean Shield, an Australian warship carrying a US-supplied black box detector. However, experts have warned that the device will be of little use unless the crash site can be identified much more precisely.

The failure to find any debris - and the imminent black box deadline - are exacerbating the anguish of relatives. “I know that until we find the plane, many families cannot start to grieve,” Mr Najib said. “I cannot imagine what they must be going through. But I can promise them that we will not give up.”

Selamat Omar, whose 29-year-old son, Mohammed Khairul Amri Selamat, was on the plane, told Australia's ABC radio that he was still hoping he was alive. “After such a long time, they could not find any object [wreckage], even with the expertise of the helpers,” he said. “We are sure that there is hope of life.”

Mr Khalid, though, warned that “at the end of the investigations, we may not even know the real cause… the reason for this incident”.

Missing plane recap : Increacing hope of finding Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 after floating objects spotted

Missing plane recap: 'Increasing hope' of finding Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 after floating objects spotted in Indian Ocean
04 April 2014 06:06 AM By Jessica Best
Search efforts are resuming in remote waters west of Perth in Australia after more sightings of suspected debris

Malaysia Airlines MH370 : Search for missing airlines goes beneath Indian Ocean surfqce

Malaysia Airlines MH370: Search for missing airliner goes beneath Indian Ocean surface

ABC
April 5, 2014, 10:33 am

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has shifted underwater, with a high-tech black box locator deployed for the first time.

The US navy's so-called towed pinger locator is being pulled behind the Australian vessel Ocean Shield in a race against time as the battery life of the cockpit data recorder dwindles.

Former Defence Force chief Angus Houston, who is heading up the Australian-led search in the southern Indian Ocean, says a British ship with a "similar capability" will also help search efforts.

The ships are scouring a 240-kilometre underwater track, which Air Chief Marshal Houston says has been very carefully chosen and based on data that "arrived recently".

"The area of highest probability as to where the aircraft might have entered the water is the area where the underwater search will commence," he said.

"On best advice the locator beacon will last about a month before it ceases its transmissions, so we're now getting pretty close to the time when it might expire."

On Monday it will be 30 days since the jetliner lost communications and disappeared from civilian radar less than an hour into an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8.

The Boeing 777 was briefly picked up on military radar on the other side of Malaysia and analysis of subsequent hourly electronic "handshakes" exchanged with a satellite led investigators to conclude the plane crashed far off the West Australian coast hours later.

Sonar may help find the plane's black box voice and data recorders that are key to unlocking what happened on the flight.

The black box is equipped with a locator beacon that transmits "pings" when underwater, but which only has an expected battery life of about 30 days.

Experts have warned the towed pinger locator may be of little use unless investigators can get a much better idea of exactly where the plane went into water, because its limited range and the slow speed at which it must be pulled behind the ship means it cannot cover large areas of ocean quickly.

Air Chief Marshal Houston says the start of the underwater search in earnest does not override the need to keep searching for surface wreckage of the plane, as a find would be the most effective way to pinpoint a sub-sea hunt.

"This is a vast area, an area that's quite remote. We will continue the surface search for a good deal more time," he said.

"I think there's still a great possibility of finding something on the surface.

"There's lots of things in aircraft that float. In previous searches life jackets have appeared which can be connected to the aircraft that was lost."

Britian sends nuclear sub, Malaysia sends frigate

On Friday, 10 military planes, four civilian jets and nine ships covered an area of more than 200,000 square kilometres about 1,700 kilometres west of Perth.

Britain is also sending HMS Tireless, a Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine with sonar capabilities. A Malaysian frigate is due to arrive in the search area on Saturday.

Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak on Thursday joined Prime Minister Tony Abbott in a tour of RAAF Base Pearce, near Perth, where aircrews from seven countries have been flying dozens of missions deep into the southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysian authorities have faced heavy criticism, particularly from China, for mismanaging the search, now in its fourth fruitless week. Most of the 239 people on board the flight were Chinese.

"The world expects us to do our level best, and I'm very confident we will indeed show what we can do together as a group of nations; that we want to find answers, that we want to  provide comfort to the families and we will not rest until  answers are indeed found," Mr Najib said.

Authorities have not ruled out mechanical problems as causing the disappearance, but say all the evidence suggests the plane was deliberately diverted from its scheduled route.

Malaysia's police chief said the investigation was focusing on the cabin crew and pilots, after clearing all 227 passengers of possible involvement in hijacking, sabotage or having personal or psychological problems that could have been connected to the disappearance.

ABC/Reuters*

Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 now classified as a criminal investigation

Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 now classified as a criminal investigation
Julian Swallow, Cindy Wockner in Kuala Lumpur, Kristin Shorten and AFP
News Corp Australia
April 03, 2014 3:11PM
Malaysia releases MH370 transcript 0:56
Play video

The transcript of communications between the crew of Flight MH370 and ground control has been released.

THE investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been classified as a criminal investigation, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal citing Malaysia’s police chief.

As the search for the missing Boeing 777-200ER continues into its 25th day, a series of updates linked to The Wall Street Journal’s Twitter feed quoted police chief Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar as saying police had taken more than 170 statements for the ongoing probe, and would interview more people.

“Investigations may go on and on and on. We have to clear every little thing,’’ Abu Bakar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

“At the end of the investigations, we may not even know the real cause. We may not even know the reason for this incident.”

IS THIS THE REAL REASON NO-ONE CAN FIND FLIGHT MH370

Abu Bakar said the backgrounds of the 227 passengers, two-thirds of whom were from China, had been checked by local and international investigators and “cleared” of the four possible scenarios: Sabotage, hijacking personal or psychological problems.

Abu Bakar said police were also investigating the cargo and food served on the plane to eliminate the possibility of poisoning of passengers and crew.

Even the aircraft’s cargo of four tonnes of mangosteens are under investigation, he said, after having previously been held up as evidence that nothing untoward was being carried in the hold.

“Investigators are looking into who ordered them, paid for them and plucked and packed them from an orchard in Muar,” he said

It follows comments from Malaysia’s Defence and acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein this week that the plane’s “movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane.”

Investigators have been trawling through the backgrounds of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, and Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, along with examining whether a passenger could have hijacked the plane and flown it to the remote southern Indian Ocean.

However, an accident has also not been fully ruled out.

Mr Abu Bakar said some details could not be revealed at the moment because it could impact on a future prosecution.

“You have to understand that there are things we cannot share as it is a criminal investigation but we are investigating based on the four areas of focus,” he said.

According to the Journal, Abu Bakar said the investigation into Captain Ahmad Shah’s home-made flight simulator remained inconclusive, and that they were awaiting expert’s reports.

Malaysian authorities handed over flight simulator hard drives to US authorities, including the FBI, after discovering information had been deleted.

The plane disappeared March 8 on a flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur after its transponders, which make the plane visible to commercial radar, were shut off. Military radar picked it up the jet just under an hour later, on the other side of the Malay peninsula. Authorities say until then its “movements were consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane’’ but have not ruled out anything, including mechanical error.

Malaysia Police Inspector General, Khalid Abu Bakar speaks during a press conference at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
‘WE CAN’T LET ANOTHER FLIGHT VANISH’

As the so-far fruitless search for the missing plane continues, the aviation industry has announced it will create a taskforce to make recommendations for continuously tracking commercial airliners because “we cannot let another aircraft simply vanish’’.

The first of nine planes headed out to the search zone about 1,500km west of Perth this morning and another nine ships continue to scour the area, with authorities warning the 25-day hunt for the Malaysia Airlines plane “could drag on for a long time”.

Last night, Malaysian investigators said they were scrutinising the last-known conversation between the Boeing 777 and ground control could not find nothing suspicious.

READ MORE: MH370 OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT RELEASED

With searchers still unable to locate any sign of the airliner, which vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard bound for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, the aviation industry has begun to examine exactly how such an incident could have happened.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade group for the world’s airlines meeting in Kuala Lumpur, said the jet’s mysterious disappearance had highlighted the need for improvements in tracking aircraft and security.

“In a world where our every move seems to be tracked, there is disbelief that an aircraft could simply disappear,” said Tony Tyler, the director general of the group whose 240 member airlines carry 84 per cent of all passengers and cargo worldwide.

“We cannot let another aircraft simply vanish,” he said in announcing the high-level task force to make recommendations on tracking commercial aircraft.

Missing flight MH370 black box may never be found as underwater search begins

Missing Flight MH370 Black Box 'May Never Be Found' As Underwater Search Begins
The Huffington Post UK  |  By Jessica Elgot
Posted: 04/04/2014 08:07 BST  |  Updated: 04/04/2014 16:59 BST

Malaysia's opposition leader has accused the Malaysian government of deliberately concealing information about the missing MH370 flight, saying the country had a sophisticated radar system that should have been able to track the plane.

Anwar Ibrahim, who has been subject to political persecution and found guilty of "sodomy' by Malaysia's current regime, said: “Unfortunately the manner in which this was handled after the first few days was clearly suspect.

A Chinese relative of passengers on the missing flight MH370 waits for the new information at a hotel in Beijing
“One fact remains. Clearly information critical to our understanding is deemed missing. I believe the government knows more than us.

“They are privy to most of these missing bits of information critical to our understanding of this mysterious disappearance of MH370.”

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who piloted the missing flight, was a known supporter of Ibrahim and his anti-corruption platform.

His comments came as Malaysia's most senior police officer has warned that the mystery of the missing MH370 flight may never be solved, and said investigations had ranged from poisoned inflight meals to cargos of exotic fruit.

Investigations into the minutiae of the cargo had come down even to a consignment of Asian tropical fruit mangosteens Inspector-General Khalid Abu Bakar said.

“We had to find out where the mangosteens came from. We tracked down who plucked the fruits, who packed them and shipped them out, who put them on the plane.

"Imagine how many people we must interview, and that was just the mangosteens.”

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was visiting the headquarters of the multinational search in Perth, promised the relatives of the 239 passengers and crew that “we will not rest until there are answers”,

The underwater search for the black box of the doomed MH370 flight will begin today, with teams using towed pinger locators to hunt the Malaysia Airlines plane's data recorder. The black box's battery could die as soon as Sunday night.

Two of the ships searching for pieces of the missing plane, which has not been seen for four weeks since setting off for Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, have equipment that can search a 150 mile underwater path.

An additional 14 planes and nine ships are also forming part of the search party.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Friday morning that the MH370 search was "probably the most difficult search that's ever been mounted," according to the BBC.

"A large aircraft seems like something that would be easy enough to locate - but a large aircraft that all but disappeared and disappeared into inaccessible oceans is an extraordinary, extraordinary challenge that you're faced with."

Although radar data has led investigators to believe the plane crashed in the southern Indian ocean, no debris belonging to the plane has been found.

Australia's naval ship Ocean Shield is using a towed pinger locator from the US Navy. The UK's HMS Echo is also using its capabilities to search underwater.

The black box will become worthless in just a few days, when its battery stops working, but investigators hope the fair weather will aid the search. The life of the battery lasts around 30 days.

The focus is on a search area of about 84,000 sq miles, 1,000 miles north west of Perth.

Malaysia plane MH370 : Pinger locator deployed in search

Malaysia plane MH370: Pinger locator deployed in search

Richard Westcott reports on the use of a pinger locator to find a black box
Continue reading the main story
MH370 mystery

10 questions
Black-box answers
What we know
Mourning the missing
The hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 moved into a new phase on Friday with the deployment of a towed pinger locator to find the black box.

Two ships with locator capabilities are searching a 240km (150 mile) path in a bid to retrieve the data recorder.

But Australia's search chief said it was a race against time as the battery-powered signal fades after 30 days.

The plane disappeared on 8 March en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It was carrying 239 people.

It is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, although no confirmed debris has been found from the plane.

The search is being co-ordinated from the city of Perth in Western Australia.

Fourteen aircraft and 11 ships were involved in Friday's search activities.

Ships sighted a number of objects in the area but none were associated with the missing plane, the coordination agency said.

'Highest probability'
Angus Houston, head of the Joint Agencies Coordination Centre (JACC) leading the search, said that two ships had "commenced the sub-surface search for emissions from [the] black box pinger".

Australia naval vessel Ocean Shield was using a towed pinger locator from the US Navy, while HMS Echo, which had similar capabilities, was also searching.

But the former military chief now coordinating the eight-nation search said it was "getting pretty close to the time when it might expire."

Beacons in the black box emit "pings" so they can be more easily found but the batteries only last for about a month.