Live: US sends robotic vehicle to salvage debris of flight MH370 by Arun George Mar 25, 2014 #China #chinese #crash #Malaysia #Malaysian Airlines #MH370 #NewsTracker #South China Sea inShare 109 CommentsEmailPrint 8.50 am: Angry Chinese relatives to march on Malaysian embassy Angry relatives of Chinese passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines plane denounced the Kuala Lumpur government and its national carrier as "executioners" on Tuesday and said they would march on the Malaysian Embassy. Early in the morning, just hours after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the plane had crashed in the Indian Ocean, an unidentified family member read out a statement at the Beijing hotel where many of the relatives of those on board were staying, denouncing the airline, the Malaysian government and military for "constantly trying to delay, hide and cover up the truth". It was "an attempt to deceive the families of the passengers and an attempt to deceive the people of the world", said the statement, which was later posted on a Chinese microblog by the "Malaysia Airlines MH370 Family Committee". In a later statement, the families said they would head to the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing on Tuesday morning to "protest, seek the truth and the return of their family members." The families, in a statement, said they would "take all possible means" to pursue the "unforgivable guilt" of the airline, the Malaysian government and the military. "These despicable acts have not only fooled and devastated physically and mentally the families of our 154 Chinese passengers, at the same time they have also misled and delayed the rescue operation, wasted a lot of manpower, material resources and lost the most precious time for the rescue efforts," the unidentified family member told reporters. "If our 154 loved ones on board have lost their precious lives on the plane because of this, then Malaysia Airlines, the Malaysia government and the Malaysia military are the real executioners who have killed our loved ones." Bad weather and rough seas on Tuesday forced the suspension of the search for any wreckage of the missing Malaysian jetliner that officials are now sure crashed in the remote Indian Ocean off Australia with the loss of all 239 people on board. 7.45 am: US sends search equipment to help locate MH370 The Pentagon has sent a black box locator and a robotic underwater vehicle, to Perth, Australia to help search for the debris of missing Malaysian plane in Indian Ocean. While the locator, towed pinger could help locate the black box, the Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle would help find the wreckage of the Malaysian plane, that went missing about a fortnight ago while on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. "This afternoon, the towed pinger locater, as well as a Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle were flown out of JFK Airport, New York to Perth. They'll arrive sometime tomorrow," the Pentagon Press Secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby, told reporters on Monday. - PTI 7.10 am: China asks Malaysia for proof that MH370 crashed into ocean China's Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng has reportedly asked Malaysia's Ambassador to China, Iskandar Bin Sarudin, to provide "detailed evidence" based on which they concluded that the plane has crashed, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. "We demand the Malaysian side to state the detailed evidence that leads them to this judgement as well as supply all the relevant information and evidence about the satellite data analysis," Xie said, according to a statement on the ministry's website, The Star Online reported. Updates end for 24 March 8:15 pm: Relatives break down on hearing news about Flight MH370 Women shrieked and sobbed uncontrollably. Men and women held up their loved ones who were nearly collapsing. Their grief came pouring out after 17 days of waiting for some definitive word on the fate of their relatives aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Relatives of passengers in Beijing had been called to a hotel near the airport to hear the announcement. Afterward, they filed out of a conference room in heart-wrenching grief. Associated Press reported that one woman collapsed and fell on her knees, crying "My son! My son!" 8:00 pm: Malaysia Airlines releases statement, says search operations to continue In a brief statement Malaysia Airlines has said that it fears missing flight MH370 has ended in the Indian Ocean and will continue search: Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume that MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean. As you will hear in the next hour from Malaysia’s Prime Minister, new analysis of satellite data suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean. On behalf of all of us at Malaysia Airlines and all Malaysians, our prayers go out to all the loved ones of the 226 passengers and of our 13 friends and colleagues at this enormously painful time. We know there are no words that we or anyone else can say which can ease your pain. We will continue to provide assistance and support to you, as we have done since MH370 first disappeared in the early hours of 8 March, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The ongoing multinational search operation will continue, as we seek answers to the questions which remain. Alongside the search for MH370, there is an intensive investigation, which we hope will also provide answers. We would like to assure you that Malaysia Airlines will continue to give you our full support throughout the difficult weeks and months ahead. Once again, we humbly offer our sincere thoughts, prayers and condolences to everyone affected by this tragedy. 7: 30 pm: Malaysian PM says flight has crashed in southern Indian Ocean The Malaysian Prime Minister has said that as per an analysis by a British satellite tracking they have evidence to indicate that the missing Malaysia Airlines flight flew towards the southern corridor of where search operations were being carried out. He said that as per the data the last location was in the southern Indian Ocean and was far from any landing strip. "I inform you with deep sadness and regret that according to this new data Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean," Najib Razak said. He said they would give more information tomorrow. The Prime Minister said that they had shared this information out of respect for the families of the passengers. "For them the past few weeks have been heartbreaking. I am sure this news has been harder still," Razak said. He urged the media to give the relatives the space they needed at this difficult time. However, he did not mention whether any debris had been found in the present search corridor. 7:15 pm:Malaysia Airlines says that MH370 has been lost "We assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived,"Malaysia Airlines has said in a statement to the relatives of the passengers. Sky News reports that the families of the passengers are to be flown to Australia only increasing the possibility that the debris of the flight has been found in the southern Indian Ocean. 6:30 pm: Malaysian PM to address press at 19:30 IST, debris found? The Malaysian Prime Minister has said that he will address the press in some time which has prompted speculation that search and rescue attempts may have finally found something related to the missing flight MH370. Australian channels are reporting that the families of the missing passengers have also been told to attend a screening of the press conference. 3:40 pm: Both pilots had adequate experience, say Malaysian authorities At the daily press conference today, the Malaysian transport minister said that while it was focussed on search in the northern and southern corridors, its focus would shift to the southern Indian Ocean. The Malaysian authorities clarified that there was no evidence of any distress signal that had been picked up from the missing jet by any satellite. They also said that both pilots were adequately trained on operating the Boeing 777 aircraft. The airline clarified that its pilot was an examiner of other pilots training to use the aircraft and the co-pilot had adequate flying experience prior to the missing flight. 3:30 pm: Chinese and Australian planes identify possible debris from missing jet Chinese and Australian planes on Monday spotted several objects in an area identified by multiple satellite images as containing possible debris from the missing Malaysian airliner, boosting hopes the frustrating search in the southern Indian Ocean could turn up more clues to the jet's fate.Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the crew on board an Australian P3 Orion had located two objects in the search zone — the first grey or green and circular, the second orange and rectangular.An Australian navy supply ship, the HMAS Success, was on the scene Monday night trying to locate and recover the objects, and Malaysia's Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the vessel could reach them within a few hours or by Tuesday morning. 2.25 pm: FBI to question pilot's wife amid suspicions of his role in a potential hijacking The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will be questioning the wife of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, who commanded the missing Malaysian airliner, amid growing suspicions that he may have hijacked the flight, IANS reported. Faizah Khan, a mother of three, will face questioning in an investigation conducted by the FBI, the Daily Mirror reported on Monday. Sources close to Shah have said that his personal life was quite complicated. His relations with his wife had deteriorated to the point where he was no longer in a relationship with her, despite living together with their children in the same house. His unstable personal life and his support of an opposition political leader recently jailed in Malaysia, has brought him into prime focus. The police are also examining the two-minute phone call that Captain Zaharie received from a mysterious woman who used a mobile number with a fake identity, before take-off 8 March. Investigators are still trying to find clues in Captain Zaharie's flight simulator which was found at his residence by the Malaysian police. All the game logs in the personal flight simulator were deleted 3 February. He played three games on his simulator -- Flight Simulator X, Flight Simulator 9 and X Flight Simulator. FBI agents are still investigating the simulator's hard disk. 2.05 pm: US Navy aircraft fails to find objects spotted by Chinese plane Australian authorities said a US Navy P-8 Poseidon, the most advanced search aircraft in the world, had been unable to find objects spotted earlier on Monday by a Chinese aircraft hunting for clues to the missing Malaysia jet in the Indian Ocean. "A US Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft was tasked to investigate reported object sightings by the Chinese aircraft made at 33,000 ft," an AMSA spokeswoman said in an emailed response to Reuters. "The objects were spotted by the Chinese aircraft as it was heading back to Perth. Drift modelling was undertaken on the sighting. The P-8 was unable to relocate the reported objects." 10.45 am: Chinese plane spots suspicious white object in Indian Ocean A Chinese plane on Monday spotted a white, square-shaped object in an area identified by satellite imagery as containing possible debris from the missing Malaysian airliner, reports Associated Press. The crew aboard an IL-76 plane sighted the object in the southern Indian Ocean and reported the coordinates to the Australian command center, which is coordinating the multinational search, as well as the Chinese icebreaker Snow Dragon, which is en route to the area, China's Xinhua News Agency reported. From 10,000 meters (33,000 feet), the spotters saw two larger floating objects and some smaller, white debris scattered over several square kilometers (miles), the report said. It gave no other details. 9.50 am: China says Chinese plane spots object in area where satellite images indicated possible debris An Associated Press news alert has said that a Chinese plane has spotted an object in the area where satellite images indicated possible debris from MH370. The search area was expanded after images from a French satellite, which showed possible debris nearly 850 kilometers (530 miles) north of the previous search zone. China's state news agency says a Chinese plane crew has spotted a white, square-shaped object in an area identified by satellite imagery as containing possible debris from the missing Malaysian airliner. Xinhua News agency says the crew aboard the IL-76 plane spotted the object in the southern Indian Ocean search area on Monday. 8.20 am: Search area expanded after images from French satellite Australian Maritime Safety Authority's rescue coordination center said the search area was expanded from 59,000 to 68,500 square kilometers (22,800-26,400 square miles), including a new separate area because of data provided by France on Sunday, reports the Associated Press. The latest search area based on French radar data was 850 kilometers (530 miles) north of the previous search zone, adds the report. The US Pacific command has also added that it is sending a black box locator to the region. The Towed Pinger Locator has highly sensitive listening capability so that if the wreck site is located, it can hear the black box pinger down to a depth of about 20,000 feet (6,100 meters). Sunday's search had revealed nothing new for the ongoing operations. Flight 370 vanished March 8 with 239 people aboard while en route from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, setting off a multinational search that has turned up no confirmed pieces and nothing conclusive on what happened to the jet. 7.20 am: Bad weather to affect search operations The search for MH370 is likely to take a hit today with forecasts predicting bad weather conditions in the Indian Ocean where at least 10 Chinese ships have joined operations to looking for the missing Malaysian jet. Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss on Monday said that weather conditions in the area were not good and could hamper search operations to a large extent. "It is a very difficult task. Today we expect the weather to deteriorate. Unfortunately forecasts ahead are not all that good," Mr. Truss said on Monday. "The search area is very large today, around 68,000 square kilometers (26,000 square miles). That's a lot of water to look for a tiny object," he told the Wall Street Journal. Updates for 23 March end 4.15 pm: French satellites also spot 'potential' debris French satellites have spotted "potential objects" in the southern search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet. "This morning, Malaysia received new satellite images from the French authorities," Malaysia's transport ministry said in a statement. "Malaysia immediately relayed these images to the Australian rescue co-ordination centre." The ministry did not give any other details on the satellite images. This area is also thought to be close to an area of the Indian Ocean where Australia and China have also had satellites capture images of objects that could be debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing March 8 with 239 people on board. 12.30 pm: Wooden pallet, other plane debris spotted in Indian ocean? Planes and a ship scrambled Sunday to find a pallet and other debris in a remote patch of the southern Indian Ocean to determine whether the objects were from the Malaysia Airlines jet that has been missing for more than two weeks. The pallet was spotted by a search plane Saturday, but has not been closely examined. Wooden pallets are commonly used in shipping, but can also be used on planes. Mike Barton, chief of Australian Maritime Safety Authority's 's rescue coordination center, told reporters in Canberra, Australia, that the wooden pallet spotted by a civilian search aircraft was surrounded by several other nondescript objects, including what appeared to be strapping belts of different colors and lengths. It was not immediately known if any pallets were used on Flight 370 that disappeared March 8 with 239 people on board. A New Zealand Orion P3 plane tried to find it, but failed, Barton said. "So, we've gone back to that area again today to try and re-find it," he said. A merchant ship also was sent to try to identify the material. 8.45 am: More planes have joined search after Chinese satellites are believed to have spotted images of possible debris from MH370 More planes were joining the search Sunday of a remote patch of the southern Indian Ocean after China released a satellite image showing a large object floating in the search zone, reports Associated Press. The Chinese satellite images are close to the location where Australia was also searching for the missing plane. Currently the search area in the Indian Ocean is about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth, Australia. Australia's search did not reveal any object. Sunday's search involving eight aircraft has been split into two areas within the same proximity covering 59,000 square kilometers (22,800 square miles), reports Associated Press. These areas have been determined by drift modelling, the AMSA said. 8.00 am: China investigating new images of possible, says Malaysia Minister Chinese satellites have spotted new debris images close to the search area where Australia's search operation was also location. According to Malaysian Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, "Chinese ships have been dispatched to the area. Beijing is expected to make an announcement in a few hours." One of the objects was very large, measuring 22.5 metres (74 feet) by 13 metres (42 feet), the ministry said in a statement, correcting the minister's earlier statistics of 22 metres by 30 metres. End of updates for 22 March 8.52 pm: British daily publishes final communication from MH 370 The final 54 minutes of communication between the pilots of the missing Malaysian plane and air traffic control has been published by a British newspaper, but Malaysia described it as inaccurate. The Daily Telegraph published what it said was the transcript of communications between the pilots and Malaysian air control, although it appeared to throw little light on the reasons for the disappearance. Department of Civil Aviation Director General Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said, "The transcript between the pilots and air traffic control with the investigation team and is being analysed, but it cannot be publicly released." He said that the transcript of the final 54 minutes of communication did not "indicate anything abnormal". The transcript published by the Telegraph "is not accurate". The Telegraph claimed that though the sequence of messages appear to be the routine ones, two potentially odd moments have been found. Earlier, Defence and Transport Minister Hishammuddin Husein said transcript of the conversation was released yesterday to investigators. 4:30 pm: Suspicious object spotted by Chinese satellite was floating 120 kms from possible debris A suspicious object spotted by a Chinese satellite was floating 120 km (72 miles) from possible debris announced by Australia in the search for a missing Malaysian jet, the official Xinhua news agency said, Reuters reported. "The location of the suspicious object is along the southern corridor missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 might have taken," it said, adding the object was spotted on 18 March, two days after the satellite image announced by Australia. 4:02 pm: Norwegian firm that helped search for Air France jet says ready to help with MH370 Swire Seabed, a Bergen-based Norwegian company involved in the search for a missing Air France jetliner nearly five years back, has said it is ready to join a similar hunt aimed at locating the Malaysian airliner that went missing a fortnight back. "It takes time to search for objects on the seabed. For example, it will take about three weeks to perform a search operation in an area of 1,000 sq km, depending on water depth," said Frode Gaupaas, chief operating officer of Swire Seabed, IANS reported. "We are ready to join the search if we are asked about it," Xinhua quoted him as telling the Aftenposten, a Norwegian-language newspaper. The company owns one of the few mini-submarines that can dive 6,000 metres deep in the sea. The vessel, Seabed Worker, which was used in the search for an Air France plane in the Atlantic, would be shipped to Australia when requested, said Gaupaas Describing deep sea search as highly specialized, Gaupaas said that all available data -- maps, photographs, wind and weather -- must be collected and analysed to assess the most likely position of the aircraft. Side-scan sonar and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) are often employed for locating objects on the seabed. Mini-submarines can film findings in real time and use remote controlled arms (robot arms) to highlight parts of a crashed plane, said Gaupaas. "If you have made a discovery of the wreckage, the first priority is to find and raise the flight data recorders and other parts that may be significant to find out what happened to the plane," said Gaupaas. 3:20 pm: China says its satellites may have found images of objects In a dramatic development during the press conference, a note was handed to the Malaysian minister which stated that Chinese satellites had detected objects of 22 metres by 30 metres in the southern Indian ocean. The minister said they would need to verify with the Chinese about what had been found. It wasn't clear whether the objects were found in the region where the search is presently on. 3:00 pm: 'Transcript of conversation between Pilot of airplane and air traffic controller indicates nothing abnormal' Malaysia minister Hishamuddin Hussein has said that the search corridor where they are hunting for the missing aircraft is very challenging and clarified that they have had no debris that has been found yet. The minister also said that the government wouldn't release the transcript of the conversation between the Air Traffic Controller and the pilots of the missing flight just yet. "However, I can clarify the transcript doesn't indicate anything abnormal," he said He said that the government was receiving updates from the Australian team on an hourly basis. 11:30 am: Malaysia seeks undersea surveillance equipment Malaysia has sought undersea surveillance equipment from the US to search the missing plane that mysteriously disappeared two weeks ago with 239 people on board, the Pentagon said. In a phone call to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Malaysia's Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein "requested that the US consider providing some undersea surveillance equipment", Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said. "Hagel assured Hishammuddin that he would assess the availability and utility of military undersea technology for such a task and provide him an update in the very near future," Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said. Officials did not say precisely what equipment the Pentagon might provide but the US military has invested heavily in undersea surveillance. 08:30 am: Two weeks on still no sign of Flight MH370 Three Australian planes took off at dawn Saturday for a third day of scouring the desolate southern Indian Ocean for possible parts of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, now lost for two full weeks. Australia promised its best efforts to resolve "an extraordinary riddle," but two days of searching the seas about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) southwest of Perth have not produced any evidence. A satellite spotted two large objects in the area earlier this week, raising hopes of finding the Boeing 777 that disappeared March 8 with 239 people on board. "It's about the most inaccessible spot that you could imagine on the face of the Earth, but if there is anything down there, we will find it," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said at a news conference in Papua New Guinea. "We owe it to the families and the friends and the loved ones of the almost 240 people on Flight MH370 to do everything we can to try to resolve what is as yet an extraordinary riddle," he added. A total of six aircraft were to search the region Saturday: two ultra long-range commercial jets and four P3 Orions, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said. Because of the distance to the area, the Orions will have enough fuel to search for two hours, while the commercial jets can stay for five hours before heading back to the base. Two merchant ships were in the area, and the HMAS Success, a navy supply ship, was due to arrive late Saturday afternoon. Weather in the search zone was expected to be relatively good, with some cloud cover. End of updates for 21 March 3.09 pm: No trace of jet debris yet, search will continue says Malaysia Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has reconfirmed that there has been no trace of plane debris so far, despite satellite images showing two objects that could have belonged to the missing plane floating in the southern Indian Ocean. Hussein said however that the search would continue. Addressing a daily press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Hussein said a British ship would also join in the search, adding that he had spoken with British and French teams about the rescue efforts. He added that Kazakhstan had also confirmed that there had been no sign of the plane in their territory. 1.48 pm: Debris spotted on satellite may have sunk: Australia Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said on Friday objects spotted on satellite images that sparked an international hunt in the remote southern Indian Ocean for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may have sunk. The satellite images were taken on 16 March. "Something that was floating on the sea that long ago may no longer be floating," he told reporters in Perth. "It may have slipped to the bottom." Truss said the search continued in treacherous seas in an area some 2,500 km (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth, and Australian, New Zealand and US aircraft would be joined by Chinese and Japanese planes over the weekend. 1.33 pm: Still no evidence that objects in Indian Ocean are objects from missing plane Investigators have not received evidence so far that two objects spotted by satellite in the Indian Ocean come from a missing passenger jet, a top Malaysian official said on Friday. "I have been getting reports all morning. There is no positive corroboration yet," Defence Minister and acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters. He was speaking after a search force resumed the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the remote southern Indian Ocean, trying to confirm a potential debris field. 1.23 pm: Search planes fail to find debris from missing jet Search planes sent to find objects in the south Indian Ocean that may be from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet began returning without success Friday, and an Australian official said the hunt would be extended again for another day. The planes are part of an international effort to solve the nearly 2-week-old aviation mystery by locating two large objects a satellite detected floating off the southwest coast of Australia about halfway to the desolate islands of the Antarctic. The area in the southern Indian Ocean is so remote is takes aircraft four hours to fly there and four hours back, and leaves them only about two hours to search. The satellite discovery raised new hope of finding the vanished jet and sent another emotional jolt to the families of the 239 people aboard. But like the first day of searching Thursday, efforts so far Friday have been fruitless, said John Young, manager of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority's emergency response division. "Although this search area is much smaller than we started with, it nonetheless is a big area when you're looking out the window and trying to see something by eye," Young said. "So we may have to do this a few times to be confident about the coverage of that search area," he said. Five planes were sent out, with the last expected to head back to Perth in western Australia about 1100 GMT, he said. Young said that although the weather improved from Thursday, there was still some low cloud cover over the search area 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) from western Australia. Given that radar did not pick up anything on Thursday, searchers were using their eyes instead of equipment to try and spot the objects, forcing the planes to fly very low over the water. The aircraft are planning to head back to the search zone on Saturday, but the search area will change slightly depending on water movements overnight, Young said. AMSA officials are also looking to see if there is any new satellite imagery that can help provide searchers with new or more information, he said. Speaking at a news conference in Papua New Guinea, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, "We've been throwing everything we've got at that area to try to learn more about what this debris might be." He said that the objects "could just be a container that's fallen off a ship — we just don't know." Abbott spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he described as "devastated." Of the 227 passengers on the missing flight, 154 were from China. 10.00 am: China sends 3 warships to join search for Malaysia plane China is sending three warships to join the search for possible pieces of a missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the southern Indian Ocean, the government said Friday. The ships are en route to the area where a satellite image showed two large objects floating about 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) west of Australia, the National Maritime Search and Rescue Center said Friday. It gave no indication when they might arrive at the remote site, but earlier Chinese news reports said the ships — the Kunlunshan, the Haikou and the Qiandaohu — were searching near the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The center said a fourth Chinese vessel, the icebreaker Snow Dragon, is in the western Australian port of Perth following a trip to Antarctica and might join the search. 9.15 am: Australia resumes remote ocean search for plane debris Australia resumed the search for possible wreckage from Malaysian airlines flight MH370 in a remote, storm-swept stretch of the Indian Ocean, hoping for better weather as spotters seek to identify the objects shown on grainy satellite images. Nearly two weeks after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar over the South China Sea, the search focus has switched to an isolated section of ocean 2,500 kilometres (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth. Satellite images have emerged showing two indistinct floating objects in the area -- the largest estimated at 24 metres (79 feet) across -- which Australia and Malaysia have described as "credible" leads. Five aircraft were taking part in Friday's operations -- three Australian air force P-3 Orions, a US Navy P-8 Poseidon and a civil Bombardier Global Express jet. Hampering the effort is the distance from the west coast of Australia, which allows the planes only about two hours of actual search time before they must return to Perth. A Norwegian merchant ship is already helping scour the search area, but Australia's HMAS Success, which is capable of retrieving any wreckage, was still days away. Poor weather has compounded the difficulty in finding the objects. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said rain showers eased Friday but that drizzle, low cloud cover and reduced visibility would continue. Although Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott cautioned that the objects may yet prove to be the latest in a number of false leads, his announcement of the satellite image analysis galvanised a search that had seemed stuck in a downward spiral of frustration and recrimination. The nature of the events that diverted MH370 from its intended flight path on March 8 remain shrouded in mystery, although Malaysian investigators have stuck to their assumption that it was the result of a "deliberate action" by someone on board. Three scenarios have gained particular attention: hijacking, pilot sabotage, and a sudden mid-air crisis that incapacitated the flight crew and left the plane to fly on auto-pilot for several hours until it ran out of fuel and crashed. If the objects in the remote southern Indian Ocean are shown to have come from MH370, some analysts believe the hijacking theory will lose ground. "The reasonable motives for forcing the plane to fly there are very, very few," Gerry Soejatman, a Jakarta-based independent aviation analyst, told AFP. The area is well off recognised shipping lanes, and the Norwegian car transporter was understood to have taken two days to reach it. "It's really off the beaten track," said Tim Huxley, chief executive of Wah Kwong Maritime Transport Holdings in Hong Kong. "It's a lonely, lonely place." 9.15 am: Delays in identifying satellite images due to 'vast amounts of data' Delays in identifying satellite images that may show debris of a missing Malaysian plane in the southern Indian Ocean were due to the vast amounts of data that needed to be analysed, Australian authorities and the U.S. company that collected the images said. Australia rushed four international aircraft to an area about 2,500 km (1,500 miles) southwest of Perth on Thursday after analysis of satellite images identified two large objects that may have come from the Malaysia Airlines plane that went missing almost two weeks ago with 239 people aboard. DigitalGlobe Inc , a Colorado-based company that collects satellite imagery for the U.S. government and other countries as well as private companies, confirmed it had collected the images on March 16. It did not say when the images were provided to Australian authorities. Australian Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss said on Friday the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which is leading the search for the Boeing 777 airliner in the southern Indian Ocean, had only received the satellite images on Thursday morning. However, the data was analysed by Australia's Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO) before that. 8.00 am: Winds, rain, currents hamper search for debris spotted in satellite images If two blurred objects photographed from space are confirmed as debris from Flight MH370, scientists will still face a daunting task to find and recover the sensitive recorders containing clues to the Malaysian jet's disappearance. With so little known about why the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight changed course and disappeared after leaving Kuala Lumpur on 8 March, finding the 'black boxes' is seen as the only real hope of understanding what happened to the plane and the 239 people on board. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday said objects possibly belonging to the plane had been discovered in the Indian Ocean. The area is around 2,500 km southwest of Perth, above a volcanic ridge in waters estimated to be 2,500 to 4,000 metres (8,200 to 13,120 feet) deep. "It can be incredibly rough and difficult. It can be very windy with strong currents, though it can equally be calm," said David Gallo, director of special projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Falmouth, Massachusetts, referring to the general area where the objects were seen. "If it is confirmed as debris, then the first priority is to recover and record each piece and see how high or low it is sitting in the water. This may help indicate how it has been moved by currents and winds," said Gallo. The immediate problem will be to find the debris, which may have moved since the satellite images were taken on 16 March. It could take several days to verify the satellite lead, a source close to the investigation said. Military aircraft from Australia, the United States and New Zealand have so far found nothing during a search hampered by strong winds and rain. Neither has a merchant ship in the area. If the objects - the biggest measures up to 24 metres (79 feet) - are from the Boeing 777, recovery teams will work as quickly as possible to locate the rest of the wreckage in the hope it leads them to the data and cockpit voice recorders. -- end of updates for 20 March -- 8.50 pm: China's request to enter Indian waters to search for missing jet rejected After objections raised by the defence forces, India today rejected China's request for permission to allow its four warships to enter Indian maritime zone to search for the missing Malaysian airliner. China, whose 150 nationals are on board the aircraft, had yesterday sent a formal request to India to allow their warships including a salvage vessel and two frigates to enter Indian waters in the Andaman Sea to locate the plane. The request was politely declined and the Chinese Navy was told that Indian Navy and the Air Force were already scanning the area and there was no need for anybody else to search the area, sources told PTI. The defence forces had raised objections over the entry of Chinese warships into the Indian waters and that too in an area in Bay of Bengal where India's military assets are mainly to guard against China and these could get exposed if the Chinese warships are allowed in, they said. Sources said the Chinese People's Liberation Army's Navy (PLAN) had justified its presence in the Indian Ocean Region in the name of anti-piracy patrol and allowing it to station itself in the Andaman Sea for search operations would not have been prudent. Meanwhile, India is all set to deploy long-range maritime surveillance aircraft including the P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft and the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft for the search operations in the new area south of Indonesia. These two aircraft are capable of undertaking long-range sorties and refueling themselves at designated locations as the Malaysian authorities have requested India and other countries to search in areas 5,000 km south of Jakarta in the Indian Ocean Region. India has so far deployed six warships and five maritime surveillance aircraft to locate the missing airliner with 239 passengers on board. The assets deployed for the search operations include INS Saryu, INS Kumbhir and INS Kesari from the Navy and ICGS Kanaklata Barua and ICGS Bhikaji Cama. The Navy had deployed two of its P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft from INS Rajali in Tamil Nadu for locating the missing plane along with its Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft. The IAF has also pressed into action its C-130J Super Hercules Special Operations aircraft fitted with modern surveillance capabilities to find the plane. 4.50 pm: Weather hampers search ops for missing Malaysian jet After the significant radar hits in Southern Indian Ocean, the search operations have been getting hampered due to weather conditions. TV reports say, that heavy clouds and rain has reduced visibility making it difficult for search crew to visualise debris. 3.52 pm: Significant radar hits found during search for missing jet in Indian Ocean Reports are coming in that radar hits of 'significant size' have been found by the light crew combing Southern Indian Ocean. Further details on this development are awaited. 3.20 pm: Regret the way Chinese families were treated, says Malaysian minister Transport minister Hussein says, "My heart is with the Chinese families, we regret the way they were treated yesterday." As the press conference goes to a question-answer session, a Malaysian official says, "We regret what happened yesterday with the Chinese relatives." "Special envoy for China along with Chinese officials will hold briefing for the Chinese families," he said. 3.12 pm: China sending more ships to look for missing jet, says Malaysian official Malaysian transport minister Hishammuddin Bin Hussein said that China was sending in more help to look for the missing flight. "China is using 21 satellites and is willing to send more ships to the search area," he said. Hussein also said, "We must never, ever give up hope." 3.10 pm: Every effort being made to find missing jet, says Malaysian official Malaysian transport minister Hishammuddin Bin Hussein said that every effort was being made to locate the object found by Australian satellites. "While some objects have been found in southern search corridor, there is no confirmation if they are from MH370," Hussein said and added, "Every effort is being made to locate images found by the satellites." He said 29 aircrafts and 18 ships were deployed in the search for the flight that has been now missing for more than 10 days. "With every passing day our search has intensified," he said. 10.10 am: Objects found in the southern search corridor, says Australian authorities In a press meet, Australian authorities said that though they can't confirm if the objects photographed by the satellite indeed belong to the missing Malaysian plane, they have been found in the search area for the jet, determined by the investigation agencies. "Commercial satellites have been redirected to take high resolution images of the objects," says officials, adding that the objects are 'indistinct' in the available images. "It could be containers from the ships fallen from board, it could be something else. But since they have been spotted in the search areas, we are trying to make sure what they are," said John Young, an Australian official, when asked if objects of those dimensions are usually spotted in the sea at other times. They also said that several aircraft have been deployed to search the area properly and the country has been regularly briefing all other countries involved in the search. 10.03 am: Objects spotted might not be from missing Malaysian jet, says Australian authorities Following is the full text of the statement issued by the AMSA on the objects spotted in Southern Indian Ocean, by Australian satellite: Statement from AMSA Emergency Response Division General Manager John Young * All times will be expressed in Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority is coordinating the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft, with assistance from the Australian Defence Force, the New Zealand Air Force and the United States Navy. AMSA’s Rescue Coordination Centre Australia has received satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search for the missing aircraft, flight MH370. RCC Australia received an expert assessment of commercial satellite imagery on Thursday. The images were captured by satellite. They may not be related to the aircraft. The assessment of these images was provided by the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation as a possible indication of debris south of the search area that has been the focus of the search operation. The imagery is in the vicinity of the search area defined and searched in the past two days. Four aircraft have been reoriented to the area 2500 kilometres south-west of Perth as a result of this information. A Royal Australian Air Force Orion aircraft arrived in the area about 1.50pm. A further three aircraft have been tasked by RCC Australia to the area later today, including a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion and United States Navy P8 Poseidon aircraft. The Poseidon aircraft is expected to arrive at 3pm. The second RAAF Orion is expected to depart RAAF Base Pearce at 6pm. The New Zealand Orion is due to depart at 8pm. A RAAF C-130 Hercules aircraft has been tasked by RCC Australia to drop datum marker buoys. These marker buoys assist RCC Australia by providing information about water movement to assist in drift modelling. They will provide an ongoing reference point if the task of relocating the objects becomes protracted. A merchant ship that responded to a shipping broadcast issued by RCC Australia on Monday is expected to arrive in the area about 6pm. Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Success is en route to the area but is some days away from this area. She is well equipped to recover any objects located and proven to be from MH370. The focus for AMSA is to continue the search operation, with all available assets. The assets are searching for anything signs of the missing aircraft. Weather conditions are moderate in the Southern Indian Ocean where the search is taking place. Poor visibility has been reported. AMSA continues to hold grave concerns for the passengers and crew on board. 9.40 am: Reports suggest that a Malaysian minister has confirmed new lead in probe According to latest reports, a Malaysian minister has confirmed to news agency Reuters that a new lead has emerged in the search for the missing flight MH370. The announcement comes immediately after the Australian PM declared that satellite images have spotted objects that might be parts of the missing plane. The Wall Street Journal has also reported that Malaysia Defense Ministry has issued a statement saying aircraft, vessels en Route to verify possible debris in southern Indian Ocean. 9.10 am: Finding plane top priority, says US President Barack Obama Associated Press reports that President Barack Obama has said finding out what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines plane is a top priority for the US. In his first public comments on the mind-boggling disappearance, Obama said Wednesday that every available U.S. resource is being used in the search, including the FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board and others who deal with aviation. Finding the plane will take time because the search area is so vast, he said, but the U.S. will continue working in close cooperation with the Malaysian government, which is leading the investigation, "to see if we can get to the bottom of this." 8.54 am: Meanwhile, India denies having spotted plane debris off Andhra Coast Officials in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday denied TV reports that pieces of what was suspected to be an aircraft were seen near the coast. Officials in Nellore district in south coastal Andhra off the Bay of Bengal found the report by a Telugu news channel to be untrue. The district authorities deputed some officials along with boats to Kutta Gouduru beach in T.P. Gudur mandal following reports that some fishermen saw objects resembling parts of an airplane. The fishermen had informed police, who in turn alerted district-level authorities. However, after a search in the area, it was dismissed as a rumour. From IANS 8.45 am: Has Australian search team spotted parts of the plane? Australia's prime minister says objects possibly related to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight have been spotted on satellite imagery. Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Parliament in Canberra on Thursday that a Royal Australian Airforce Orion has been diverted to the area to attempt to locate the objects. The Orion is expected to arrive in the area Thursday afternoon. Three additional aircraft are expected to follow for a more intensive search. It was also reported that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority will hold a media briefing soon. With inputs from AP 7.42 am: Malaysia seeks FBI help to analyse simulator data The FBI joined forces with Malaysian authorities in analyzing deleted data on a flight simulator belonging to the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, while distraught relatives of the passengers unleashed their anger — wailing in frustration at 12 days of uncertainty. Files containing records of flight simulations were deleted Feb. 3 from the device found in the home of the Malaysia Airlines pilot, Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu said. It was not immediately clear whether investigators thought that deleting the files was unusual. The files might hold signs of unusual flight paths that could help explain where the missing plane went. Then again, the files could have been deleted simply to clear memory for other material. Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference that Zaharie is considered innocent until proven guilty. From Associated Press End of updates from 19 March 6.50 pm: Malaysian government, oppn fight over missing jet It took more than a week, but both sides of Malaysia's bitterly contested political divide are now sparring over the disappearance and hunt for the missing jetliner, a possible distraction for a government already under fire for its handling of the crisis. The opposition is attacking the government, relishing in the international criticism that has been directed at leaders unused to such scrutiny. Pro-government blogs are focusing on the pilot's support for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, hoping that suspicions against the former will discredit the latter. Malaysian politics have been defined in recent years by the government's attempts to stop the rise of opposition parties chipping away at its five-decade grip on power. Anwar, the opposition movement's main leader, spent six years in jail on corruption and sodomy charges, a campaign that Western rights groups and governments say is politically motivated. The missing plane has reopened this fault line because the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, is a supporter of Anwar and the uncle of his daughter-in-law. It got extra traction locally when the Daily Mail, a British tabloid, described Zaharie as a "political fanatic," and used this to buttress a theory that he was involved in the plane's disappearance. 6.13 pm: Malaysia gives Indian govt new search coordinates for missing jet Television reports suggest that now, Malaysia has given the India government new search coordinates for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Further details on this development are awaited. 3.25 pm: Files recently deleted from pilot's simulator, says Malaysian official During a press conference today a Malaysian Minister said that reports of the missing plane sighted in Maldives were untrue. He said, "Have asked respective countries to provide background of all passengers on board the MH370." TV reports also suggested that before this press conference some relatives of passengers on board the missing flight barged into the venue and demanded that the truth be told to them. The official also said files were recently deleted from flight simulator of pilot aboard missing jet. 3.06 pm: Background check on passengers produces no information Background checks on nearly all but three of the 239 passengers and crew on board a missing Malaysia Airlines jet have produced no "information of significance", Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Wednesday. "We have received passengers' background checks from all countries apart from Ukraine and Russia," Hishammuddin told reporters at a daily briefing. "So far no information of significance on passengers has been found." he said. There were two Ukranians and one Russian on the plane. 1.12 pm: Meanwhile, relatives of Chinese passengers on MH370 accuse Malaysia of incompetence Tempers flared Wednesday among Chinese relatives of passengers aboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, as frustration grew with what one called the airline's "shameful role" and the search entered its 12th day. "We do not have any other way of dealing with this other than to be angry and to cry. Your way of dealing with it is either lying or playing a shameful role," one relative shouted, waving his arms furiously at a representative from the airline. The angry exchanges took place at a daily meeting between company officials and family members at a hotel in Beijing, as multinational efforts have failed to find any trace of the plane which had 153 Chinese aboard. "Look what we have been talking about today -- trivial matters," the man shouted angrily. "What are we coming here for? We just want to know where our relatives are and where the plane is." From AFP. 12.34 pm: Malaysian plane in Indian Ocean? Investigators examining the March 8 disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines plane with 239 people aboard believe it most likely that the plane flew into the southern Indian Ocean, a source close to the investigation said on Wednesday. "The working assumption is that it went south, and furthermore that it went to the southern end of that corridor," said the source, referring to a search area stretching from west of Indonesia to the Indian Ocean west of Australia. Reuters 11.04 am: Did the plane crash off Langkawi islands? A Google plus post by former pilot Chris Goodfellow - that was later published by Wired suggests that the truth could be much simpler and less complex than originally thought. There was an electric fire onboard. The experienced pilot with no time on his hands, sought to divert the flight to the island of Langkawi. This is what happened according to Goodfellow: "What I think happened is that they were overcome by smoke and the plane just continued on the heading probably on George (autopilot) until either fuel exhaustion or fire destroyed the control surfaces and it crashed. I said four days ago you will find it along that route - looking elsewhere was pointless." However, this theory too has been debunked. In an article published on Slate, Jeff Wise says, "Goodfellow’s account is emotionally compelling, and it is based on some of the most important facts that have been established so far. And it is simple—to a fault. Take other major findings of the investigation into account, and Goodfellow’s theory falls apart. According to Wise, Goodfellow falters on a number of factors. Read the complete article on Firstpost here. 8.24 am: Has Hyderabad techie managed to spot missing flight over Andaman Islands? After singer Courtney Love declared that she might have spotted the missing jet, a Hyderabad techie has also claimed that he has satellite images of what he thinks is the missing Malaysian plane. According to a report on The Hindu, 29-year-old Anoop Madhav Yeggina, found a picture of what seemed like a huge jet flying very low over the Andaman Islands. He was reportedly going over the pictures of DigitalGlobe Satellite QB02 when he spotted this image. Anoop told The Hindu: “I am confident that the image is that of the missing plane because of many reasons. First giveaway is the fact that the image was captured just above a forest and very close to the Shibpur air strip of Andaman Islands. The air strip is exclusively used by the defence forces with no permission for civilian aircraft in this area. A close look at the image will reveal if it is flying extremely low so much so that the clouds are above it which suggests it was done to avoid detection by radar. Most importantly, the standard scale measurement and colour of the missing plane matches with that of the plane in the image,” said Mr. Anoop. Read the complete story here. 8.21 am: Missing jet didn't land on Indian Ocean base, says US The United States has ruled out the possibility of the missing Malaysian plane landing at its Indian Ocean base in Diego Garcia. "I'll rule that one out," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters yesterday when asked about such news reports appearing mainly in the Chinese press. Carney said the Malaysian government has the lead in this investigation and the US officials are in Kuala Lumpur working closely with the Malaysian government on the investigation. "This is a difficult and unusual situation, and we are working hard, in close collaboration with the Malaysian government and other partners, to investigate a number of possible scenarios for what happened to the flight. Our hearts of course go out to the families of the passengers. They are in a truly agonizing situation," he said. From PTI --- End of updates from 18 March --- 9.30 pm: Now Maldivians may have seen mysterious Malaysian plane Deepening the mystery of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, residents of the remote Maldives island of Kuda Huvadhoo in Dhaal Atoll claimed that they have seen a "low flying jumbo jet" on 8 March, the day on which the aircraft disappeared. The Haveeruonline report said that the aircraft was travelling at a very low attitude making tremendous noise from "North to South-East, towards the Southern tip of the Maldives – Addu". "I've never seen a jet flying so low over our island before. We've seen seaplanes, but I'm sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly," said an eyewitness to Haveeruonline. "It's not just me either, several other residents have reported seeing the exact same thing. Some people got out of their houses to see what was causing the tremendous noise too," the witness said. 6:15 pm: 10 days later, Thailand gives radar data Thailand's military says its radar detected a plane that may have been Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 just minutes after the missing jetliner's communications went down, and that it didn't share the information earlier because it wasn't specifically asked for it. Thai air force spokesman Montol Suchookorn said Tuesday the plane followed a twisting flight path to the Strait of Malacca, which is where Malaysian radar tracked Flight 370 early 8 March. But Montol said the Thai military wasn't sure whether it detected the same plane. The search for the jet has entered its second week. AP Asked why it took so long to release the information, Montol said, "Because we did not pay any attention to it." He said the plane never entered Thai airspace and that Malaysia's initial request for information was not specific. 5:00 pm: Has Courtney Love found the missing jet? She's known more for her headline-making ability than those in the area of search and rescue, but singer Courtney Love has created a storm on Twitter by claiming that she may have found the missing Malaysian flight MH370. The singer posted a series of images on her Twitter timeline that she claimed could be of the missing aircraft, the search for which has entered its second week. 4.16 pm: Search area for missing jet is now as big as Australia: Malaysian govt Malaysia has said the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet now encompassed and area slightly larger than the entire land mass of Australia. "The entire search area is now 2.24 million square nautical miles (7.7 million square kilometres)," acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said in a daily press briefing on Tuesday evening. Australia has a land mass of around 7.6 million square kilometres. The search area extends north into south central Asia, passing across far western China, including Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as south deep into the Indian Ocean west of Australia. "This is an enormous search area. And it is something that Malaysia cannot possibly search on its own," Hishammuddin said. "I am therefore very pleased that so many countries have come forward to offer assistance and support to the search and rescue operation." 26 countries have deployed dozens of aircraft to search for the missing Beijing-bound jet that went missing in the early hours of March 8. 3.35 pm: Furious Chinese families threaten to go on hunger strike Furious Chinese families threatened to go on hunger strike until the Malaysian government tells them the truth about the fate of their relatives aboard a Malaysia Airlines flight which went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Ten days after the airliner vanished an hour into its flight, hundreds of family members are still waiting for information in a Beijing hotel. Around two thirds of the 239 passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are Chinese. Families vented their pain and anger on Chinese representatives sent by the airline to meet them on Tuesday and demanded to see the Malaysian ambassador. "What we want is the truth. Don't let them become victims of politics. No matter what political party you are, no matter how much power you have, if there isn't life, what's the point? Where is compassion?" asked one middle-aged woman angrily. "You're always going back and forth. I think your government knows in their heart why we want you to answer us. Because you're always tricking us, telling us lies," added one man. Speaking to reporters, a woman who had led the chanting held up a piece of paper with slogans written on it, and said the families were calling for a hunger strike. "Respect life, return our relatives. Can everyone read it? Can everyone read it?" she asked. "We're going on hunger strike. I'm representing," she said. "The families are on the point of collapse. There are so many families coming and going, some have already left. The young people can stand it, but the elderly have already broken down," she shouted. It was not clear how many of the relatives would join the hunger strike, or if it had even begun. China has repeatedly called on the Malaysian side to do a better job at looking after the relatives of the Chinese passengers, and to provide them with updated information. 3.10 pm: Precise time at which system was disabled has no bearing on search operations, says govt Addressing the media at its daily press briefing, the Malaysian government has said that the precise time at which the communications system of MH370 was disabled has no bearing on the search operations for the site. The Malaysian Transport minister said that the position of the government, which was that the communications system of the jet had been deliberately switched off, and that the plane had been flown for some hours after it was reported missing, remained unchanged. He said that the jet seemed to have been deviated from its flight path between 1.07pm and 1.37pm. 3.00 pm: Malaysia govt says new search area is 2.2 mn nautical miles The Malaysian government has said that the new search area, which has been divided into several corridors and quadrants is now 2.2 million nautical miles. Australia and Malaysia have agreed to take the lead in one corridor, while China and ASEAN will take the lead in another. 2.51 pm: Sri Lanka allows use of airspace to search for missing jet Sri Lanka today allowed flights from Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and the US to use its air space for search operations to trace the missing Malaysian passenger aircraft. The External Affairs Ministry said that a request had been made for Lanka's air space to be used during the search and rescue operations for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which suddenly disappeared with 239 people on board on 8 March. It said the request has been granted for aircraft from Malaysia, US, Australia and New Zealand in the on going search and rescue operations. Lankan Mission in Malaysia had asked the Malaysian authorities if any direct assistance was required in the search and rescue operations but so far such assistance has not been sought, the ministry said. 12.50 pm: Malaysia denies cold shouldering US Malaysia rejected criticism on Tuesday from US government officials that it has not been sharing as much information as it could with foreign governments about the disappearance of passenger jet more than a week ago. Two US security officials said on Monday that the Malaysia had still not invited the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to send a team to Kuala Lumpur to assist in the probe into the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. "I have been working with them," Malaysia's Defence and Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told Reuters on Tuesday, when asked if the country had requested FBI help. "It's up for the FBI to tell us if they need more experts to help because it's not for us to know what they have." While Malaysia's police special branch has been providing some information to US law enforcement and intelligence agencies, US sources said, the FBI is only collaborating with Malaysian authorities via an agent, known as a "legal attache", assigned to the American Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. The FBI and other U.S. law enforcement agencies, such as elements of the Department of Homeland Security, indicated some time ago they were eager to send teams to Kuala Lumpur, but will not do so unless formally invited. Asked if any FBI staff had travelled from outside Malaysia, Hishammuddin said: "Once I have spoken to one FBI representative, I assume the whole FBI would be behind it." 11.50 am: Malaysia under scrutiny as plane mystery drags on Malaysia vehemently denies mishandling crucial information on the fate of missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370, but questions persist as to whether early missteps and secrecy contributed to the disappearance of a huge passenger plane on a clear night. Foreign media reports, especially those in China's state media, have accused the Malaysian authorities of incompetence, misleading the public and exacerbating the suffering of the relatives of those missing. Two-thirds of the passengers on the Boeing-777 that effectively vanished 11 days ago were Chinese nationals. The Malaysian government has pleaded for patience and understanding, arguing it has no choice but to hold back information that has not been painstakingly verified. Critics say the lack of progress in the search for the plane is symptomatic of an inefficient ruling elite unused to tough questioning. "The Malaysian leadership is not used to being held to account on anything," Michael Barr, an Asian politics expert at Flinders University in Australia, told AFP. "They are more used to controlling the press and silencing critics," he said. The authoritarian Barisan Nasional government has been in power since independence from colonial rulers Britain in 1957. It has overseen decades of growth that have seen Malaysia emerge as Southeast Asia's third largest economy, posting a healthy GDP expansion of 4.7 percent last year. But analysts say unchallenged power has also bred apathy and inefficiency. The stumbles over the missing plane search show that the government "lacks the ability to handle many technical matters with assurance and to communicate its purposes globally with clarity and agility," said Clive Kessler, emeritus professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of New South Wales. Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim who, along with right groups, has routinely accused the government of civil liberties abuses and corruption, was even more scathing. "The mysterious disappearance of MH370 reflects not only an incompetent regime ruling the country but an irresponsible government," Anwar told AFP. He was speaking in response to speculation that the captain of this airliner -- a member of Anwar's party -- may have been driven by political motives to sabotage the plane. Anwar said he was "disgusted" by what he saw as an attempt to smear the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, and somehow implicate the opposition leadership in the March 8 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. 11.30 am: Australia sharply reduces search for missing plane in Indian Ocean Australia's maritime safety agency said on Tuesday it had sharply reduced its search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner to a 600,000 sq km (230,000 sq mile) corridor in the southern Indian Ocean, but that is still roughly the size of Spain and Portugal combined. Strong currents and high seas are making the task more daunting, it said. In the northern hemisphere, a separate search area is along an arc stretching from Malaysia through northern Thailand, Myanmar and China to Kazakhstan. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), said the southern search field had been narrowed from 19 million sq km, based on analysis of satellite data collected from the plane by the United States National Transportation Safety Board. AMSA had streamlined that data further to account for water movements in the days since Flight MH370 disappeared 10 days ago. "It's the result of some analysis of the possible movement of the aircraft," John Young, general manager of the emergency response division of AMSA, told reporters. "There are some assumptions built in, including the speed of the aircraft." 10.30 am: Why were there no cell phone calls by passengers of missing jet? As time passes, the mysteries surrounding MH370 only seem to grow. The latest question that is being reportedly asked is, why was there no mobile communication by any of the passengers who were aboard the plane after it was diverted? According to a NY Times report, as far as investigators have been able to determine, there have been no phone calls, Twitter or Weibo postings, Instagram photos or any other communication from anyone aboard the aircraft since it was diverted. According to the report: The apparent absence of any word from the aircraft in an era of nearly ubiquitous mobile communications has prompted considerable debate among pilots, telecommunications specialists and others. Most of the people aboard the plane were from Malaysia or China, two countries where mobile phone use is extremely prevalent, especially among affluent citizens who take international flights.Some theorize the silence signifies that the plane was flying too high for personal electronic devices to be used. Others wonder whether people aboard the flight even tried to make calls or send messages. 9.30 am: China begins search for missing jet in its territory Reuters reports: China has begun to searching for a missing Malaysia Airlines jet with 239 passengers and crew on board in Chinese territory which covers a northern corridor through which the aircraft could have flown, said state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday, quoting Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang. 9.09 am: No evidence that Chinese passengers could be involved in hijack, says China Meanwhile, China stepped up pressure on Malaysian authorities by declaring that they have thoroughly probed the passengers from their country aboard MH370 and concluded that they could not have helped orchestrate a terror attack on a hijack situation. "There is no evidence of Chinese passengers being involved in a hijack or terror attack on a missing Malaysia Airlines flight that vanished on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing earlier this month, state media on Tuesday cited China's ambassador to Malaysia as saying." 8.55 am: Malaysian PM calls up Manmohan Singh, provides new search coordinates As the missing plane mystery deepens, Malaysian authorities are all set to provide Indian search teams with new coordinates to resume search. The Indian Express reports that Malaysian PM Najib Razak has called up Manmohan Singh and updated him about the new search plan. IE quotes a government source: “The Malaysian side were very appreciative of Indian efforts to find the missing aircraft. Now, they have to give us the coordinates of the Northern Arc — which covers several countries, and the Southern Arc — which covers the Indian Ocean. The Indian side will then work on those two possible flight paths.” 8.50 am: Did missing Malaysian jet fly to Taliban-dominated territory? According to a report in The Independent, the missing jet could have been flown to Taliban territory. Latest investigations have revealed that the last message that the air traffic controllers received from the plane's cockpit, 'All right, good night', came after one of the communication systems had been switched off. However, how that leads to the conclusion that the plane might have been flown to Taliban territory is not clear. 7.30 am: Flight's path might have been changed from computer system and not manually on the flight Nine days after it went missing, the US investigators have suggested that the aircraft's path might have been changed manually, but through a computer programme developed by someone who has intense knowledge about aircraft systems, reports New York Times. NYT reports: "Instead of manually operating the plane’s controls, whoever altered Flight 370’s path typed seven or eight keystrokes into a computer on a knee-high pedestal between the captain and the first officer, according to officials. The Flight Management System, as the computer is known, directs the plane from point to point specified in the flight plan submitted before each flight. It is not clear whether the plane’s path was reprogrammed before or after it took off." This new development has strengthened the probe teams' belief that the plane was deliberately diverted and they now plan to thoroughly investigate the captain and the first officer. Read the full NYT report here. 7:10 am: US Navy ship drops out of search, returns to normal duties The US Navy ship that has been helping search for the missing Malaysian airliner is dropping out of the hunt, US military officials said on Monday. The Associated Press reported, that the USS Kidd, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that has been searching in the Indian Ocean, will return to its normal duties. The decision was made in consultation with the government of Malaysia. A Pentagon spokesman said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Malaysian Minister of Defense Hishammuddin Tun Hussein on Monday evening that the United States is fully committed to working with Malaysia to locate the plane. The Navy's 7th Fleet determined that long-range naval aircraft are a more efficient means of looking for the plane or its debris, now that the search area has broadened into the southern Indian Ocean. Long-range Navy P-3 and P-8 surveillance aircraft remain involved in the search, Cmdr. William Marks, a spokesman for the 7th Fleet, said in an emailed statement. -- End of updates from 17 March --- 3: 30 pm: No hostage demands or distress signal gives hope flight wasn't hijacked, says authorities Malaysia said that it had asked all nations where the aircraft could have gone to verify using ground and satellite information where the flight may have gone. However, the government said that it was still focussed on finding the aircraft and it would not like to say for certain that the families of the passengers on board should fear the worst. "We estimate the plane could have had another 30 minutes of fuel," the transport minister said. The fact that there is no distress signal or demands from terror groups gave authorities hope that the flight hadn't been hijacked, the authorities said. 3:25 pm: Have recording of last transmission from co-pilot, analysing it, says Malaysia Airlines The Malaysia Airlines CEO said that they had recorded the conversation between the cockpit of the missing jet and the air traffic controller and had verified it to be the voice of the co-pilot. The authorities also said that the last communication had been received at 1:19 am on Saturday and they were analysing to check if the co-pilot was under stress during the last transmission. 3:20 pm: Psychometric tests were carried out on pilot, says Malaysia Airlines Malaysia Airlines said that psychometric tests were normal for its pilots and said it will look into the aspect. "We will look at whether we should tighten the measures," the airline CEO said. The Malaysia Airlines CEO said that they were presently at a stage of heightened security and checking everything before a flight. The Malaysian government said that they had no evidence to suggest that passengers had attempted to use their cell phones to make contact with anyone. "It is part of the investigations," the Malaysian transport minister said. 15:00 pm: Not withholding info, probing past of crew of MH370, say Malaysian authorities Malaysia today listed the various measures it is undertaking in its search for the missing aircraft and said it had also tied up with Chinese authorities for the search. The Malaysian government said that the police had begun investigating all the crew and ground staff who worked on the missing flight. "We have taken a flight simulator from the pilot's residence with the permission of his family," the Malaysian minister for aviation said, adding that they had worked with FBI and Interpol He also denied withholding information and said they were doing so in a organised matter. "We will not withhold any information but will not do so until verified by international investigating agencies," he said. The Malaysian government said that based on the information that it had given to US authorities, it had begun searching the Western coast of the nation. 12.40 am: Malaysian Police now investigating flight engineer on board MH370 Malaysian police are investigating a flight engineer who was among the passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines plane as they focus on the pilots and anyone else on board who had technical flying knowledge, a senior police official said. The aviation engineer is Mohd Khairul Amri Selamat, 29, a Malaysian who has said on social media he had worked for a private jet charter company. "Yes, we are looking into Mohd Khairul as well as the other passengers and crew. The focus is on anyone else who might have had aviation skills on that plane," a senior police official with knowledge of the investigations told Reuters. 11:00 am: Australia takes over southern vector of search Australia has accepted a request from Malaysia to take charge of the "southern vector" of the search for a Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for more than a week with 239 people on board, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Monday. Abbott said he had offered additional surveillance resources to bolster the two Australian Orion aircraft already searching for the plane during a recent phone call with Prime Minister Najib Razak. "He asked that Australia take responsibility for the search in the southern vector, which the Malaysian authorities now think was one possible flight path for this ill-fated aircraft," Abbott told lawmakers in parliament. "I agreed that we would do so." 10:30 am: Last message from plane came after systems were disabled The last words from the cockpit of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 - "all right, good night" - were uttered after someone on board had already begun disabling one of the plane's automatic tracking systems, a senior Malaysian official said. Both the timing and informal nature of the phrase, spoken to air traffic controllers as the plane with 239 people aboard was leaving Malaysian-run airspace on a March 8 flight to Beijing, could further heighten suspicions of hijacking or sabotage. The sign-off came after one of the plane's data communication systems, which would have enabled it to be tracked beyond radar coverage, had been deliberately switched off, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Sunday. "The answer to your question is yes, it was disabled before," he told reporters when asked if the ACARS system - a maintenance computer that sends back data on the plane's status - had been deactivated before the voice sign-off. -- end of updates for 16 March 2014 -- 7.40 pm: PM Manmohan Singh assures Malaysia of all possible assistance PM Manmohan Singh has assured Malaysian PM Najib Razak of all support after he requested India's assistance to corroborate possible paths that missing Malaysian airliner MH370 might have taken after losing contact with ATC radar. PM Najib had earlier called Singh to request tech assistance. Click here for the full report. 6.30 pm: India clears its passengers Indian intelligence officials have cleared the five Indians on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, police said today. As new information emerged that the communication system in the missing aircraft was deliberately disabled and its transponder switched off before the plane veered from its path, police focused their probe on the crew, passengers and the ground staff and sought background checks of all people on board. "We are still awaiting reply from all agencies, especially intelligence reports from many countries. So far, Indian and Chinese authorities have cleared the list," police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said. (PTI) Click here for the full report. 4.28 pm: Malaysia still waiting for background checks on passengers Malaysian investigators are still waiting for some countries to send background checks on passengers who were on a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner as they intensify inquiries into a suspected deliberate diversion of the plane, the country's police chief said on Sunday. "There are still a few countries yet to respond to our requests," Khalid Abu Bakar told a news conference. Police are also investigating airport ground staff and have intensified their checks on the two pilots, including examining a flight simulator seized from the captain's home, he said. Investigators have stepped up their scrutiny of the 239 crew members and passengers of lost Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. 3.56 pm: 25 countries involved in search for missing plane, says Malaysia Malaysia said on Sunday the number of countries involved in efforts to find a missing passenger jet had nearly doubled to 25 as it began a new push to find the plane across a vast arc of land and ocean. "The number of countries involved in the search and rescue operation has increased from 14 to 25, which brings new challenges of coordination and diplomacy to the search effort," said Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's defence and transport minister. 3.10 pm: Search and rescue operations are now focused on both land and sea, says Malaysian authorities Addressing a press conference in Kuala Lampur, Malaysian authorities said today that the search operation has entered a new phase, and only facts which are corroborated will be released. The authorities said that they are re-investigating the details of crew, passengers on board the missing plane as information revealed yesterday has provided new leads. "Hijack, sabotage, personal problem, psychological problem are still the four possible options. Search and rescue operations are now focused on both land and sea," a Malaysian minister said on missing flight. The conference was being addressed by Malaysia's transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein, Inspector General Khalid Abu Bakar and Malaysian Aviation Chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman. 'Twenty five countries now involved in search for missing flight, this is an unprecedented situation," said Malaysia police chief. The Malaysian police chief said that ground staff as well as passengers and crew being investigated in search for missing plane. Malaysia civil aviation chief said that it is possible that the aircraft was on the ground when some satellite signals sent. However, Malaysia's transport minister said that the main focus is on search and rescue operations. "We don't want to speculate on any other theories," he added. 2. 30 pm: Captain of the missing Malaysian jet an engineering buff, passionate pilot The captain of a missing Malaysian jet is an engineering buff who assembled his own home flight simulator, while friends of the co-pilot have defended his reputation after one report portrayed him as a cockpit Casanova, reports AFP. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 53, reportedly joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981 and is praised as a passionate pilot who has logged 18,365 hours of flying time at work and still more at home on his sophisticated simulator. A tribute page that has garnered more than 400 comments largely from well-wishers, shows pictures of the complex set-up including Zaharie posing in front of it. His YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/catalinapby1 features videos showing him cheerfully explaining how to fix an air-conditioner, patch damaged windows, and other DIY projects. Malaysian media reports have quoted colleagues as calling Zaharie a "superb pilot", who also served as an examiner, authorised by the Malaysian Civil Aviation Department, to conduct simulator tests for pilots. His first officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, who joined the airline at the age of 20, studied piloting at a flight school on the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi. An Australian television report made waves this week by broadcasting an interview with a young South African woman who said Fariq and another pilot colleague invited them into the cockpit of a flight he co-piloted from Phuket, Thailand to Kuala Lumpur in 2011. Passengers have been prohibited from entering cockpits during a flight since the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Malaysia Airlines said it was "shocked" by the reported security violation, but that it could not verify the claims. The son of a high-ranking official in the public works department of a Malaysian state, he is a mild-mannered "good boy" who regularly visited his neighbourhood mosque outside Kuala Lumpur, said the mosque's imam, or spiritual leader. Fariq also attended occasional Islamic courses, said Ahmad Sharafi Ali Asrah, who rejected the account of the supposed cockpit security breach. "This story doesn't make sense and I feel it's just an effort to discredit Fariq or the airlines," Ahmad Sharafi said. "He is a good boy and keeps a low profile." Fariq had a brief brush with fame when he appeared in a CNN travel segment with the network's correspondent Richard Quest in February, in which Fariq helped fly a plane from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur. The segment portrayed Fariq's transition to piloting the Boeing 777-200 after having completed training in a flight simulator. "It was interesting to watch the way he brought the aircraft in to land," Quest said, according to the CNN website, calling Fariq's technique "textbook-perfect". Prime Minister Najib Razak announced Saturday that satellite and radar data clearly indicated the plane's automated communications had been disabled and the plane then turned away from its intended path and flown on for hours. In three of the four flights used for the 9/11 attacks, hijackers who seized control of the aircraft are believed to have manually turned off each plane's transponder, which sends flight data back to air-traffic control. Terence Fan, an aviation expert at Singapore Management University, cited the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 in October 1999 in the Atlantic Ocean -- which killed 217 people -- as an example of a crash allegedly deliberately caused by a pilot. A US investigation said the first officer crashed the jet when the captain went on a break, findings disputed by Egyptian officials. 12. 50 am: Malaysian police examine pilot's flight simulator According to Associated Press reports, Malaysian authorities on Sunday were examining an elaborate flight simulator taken from the home of the pilots of the missing jetliner, after it was established that whoever flew off with the Boeing 777 had intimate knowledge of the cockpit and knew how to avoid detection when navigating around Asia. Satellite data suggested the plane flew for at least 7 ½ hours — more than six hours after the last radio contact — and that it could have reached north into Central Asia or deep into the southern Indian Ocean, posing awesome challenges for efforts to recover the plane and flight data recorders vital to solving the mystery of what happened on board. Given that the northern route would take the plane over countries with busy airspace, a southern path is seen as much more likely. The southern Indian Ocean is one of the most remote stretches of water in the world, the third deepest and has little radar coverage. The wreckage might take months — or longer — to find, or might never be located. There appeared to be some confusion Sunday as India, one of 12 countries contributing planes and vessels to the search, said it had stopped looking while waiting for confirmation from Malaysia on where to look. Malaysia's acting transport minister tweeted he was in meetings to decide the "next course of action" after Saturday's revelations. In a statement on Sunday, Malaysia's Transport Ministry said that police searched the homes of both the pilot and the co-pilot on Saturday. It didn't say whether this was the first time they had done this since the plane went missing eight days ago. It said police were examining an elaborate flight simulator taken from the home of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah. The statement also said they were investigating engineers who may have had contact with the plane before it took off. The flight departed Kuala Lumpur at 12:40 a.m. heading toward Beijing. Investigators now have a high degree of certainty that one of the plane's communications systems — the Aircraft and Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) — was partially disabled before the aircraft reached the east coast of Malaysia, Najib said. Shortly afterward, someone on board switched off the aircraft's transponder, which communicates with civilian air traffic controllers. Najib confirmed that Malaysian air force defense radar picked up traces of the plane turning back westward, crossing over Peninsular Malaysia into the northern stretches of the Strait of Malacca. Authorities previously had said this radar data could not be verified. The air force has yet to explain why it didn't spot the plane flying over the country, and respond. The search was initially focused on the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, where the plane severed its communication links. That search has now ended. "One that thing that does bother me greatly is the fact that unidentified aircraft could navigate back over Malaysia and out to sea without a physical or material response to that fact," said Britain-based aviation security consultant Chris Yates. "They were not watching." (Associated Press) 10.29 am: India puts search for missing jet on hold India on Sunday has put its search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on hold, at the request of the government in Kuala Lumpur, which wants to reassess the week-old hunt for the Boeing 777 that is now suspected of being hijacked. India had been searching in two areas, one around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and a second further west in the Bay of Bengal. Both searches have been suspended, but may resume, defence officials said. "It's more of a pause," said Commander Babu, a spokesman for the country's Eastern Naval Command. "The Malaysian authorities are reassessing the situation. They will figure whether they need to shift the area of search." -- end of updates for 15 March 2014 -- 8.53 pm: Thailand calls off search for missing Malaysian jet Thailand today called off its search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane over the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea after Malaysian Premier said hunt for the aircraft will shift to two new destinations. Navy commander Adm Narong Pipattanasai ordered the search to stop after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak confirmed that flight MH370 had changed its course to a new destination, including Kazhakistan and southern Indian ocean, Thai navy spokesman Adm Karn Dee-ubon said here. But the navy still directed four ships - HTMS Pattani, HTMS Tapi, HTMS Songkhla and HTMS Sattahip - to stand ready in case the Malaysian government needed help for another search, said Rear Adm Karn. "Our most updated information in the radar system was in Hat Yai in southern Thailand where the air force detected MH370 flying out of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. That was the first and last time we detected MH370," air force spokesman AM Monthon Sutchukorn said. 6.54 pm: Signals from MH370 received by satellite firm may help search A British satellite communications company today said it had recorded electronic ping signals from the missing Malaysian aircraft which could be analysed to help estimate its location. As the hunt for Flight MH370 remained inconclusive, the information from Inmarsat could prove to be a valuable break in the frustrating search for the plane with 239 people aboard that mysteriously vanished from radar screens last week. Inmarsat described the communication signals from the plane as "routine" and "automated", without disclosing any details regarding the timing of the signals in relation to the aircraft's disappearance on 8 March. Inmarsat said in a statement that it handed the information to communications specialist SITA which, it adds, has shared the data with the airline. It has not stated which satellites were involved. Inmarsat operates about 10 geostationary satellites through which it handles satcom datalink transmissions including those from the aeronautical sector. 4.14 pm: Bangladesh joins search for missing Malaysian jet Bangladesh today joined international search operations to trace the missing Malaysian plane by deploying frigates and aircraft in its exclusive economic zone in the Bay of Bengal. In line with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's directive, two patrol aircraft and two navy frigates — BNS Omar Faruque and BNS Bangabandhu — have joined the search, primarily to look for the aircraft in Bangladesh's exclusive economic zone, a defence ministry spokesman told PTI. Bangladesh decided to join the search for the missing Flight MH370 with 14 other countries in view of emerging possibilities that the plane could be tracked down in the Bay of Bengal, he said. Replying to a question, the official said no time limit was issued for the duration of the campaign. The decision came amid reports suggesting that faint electronic signals sent to satellites from the missing aircraft show it might have been flown thousands 3.19 pm: Malaysian cops raid house of missing jet's captain Malaysian police today went to the house of Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, the pilot of the missing flight MH370, minutes after Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that investigators will refocus on the crew and passengers of the aircraft that disappeared eight days ago. Two police officers went to 53-year-old Capt Zaharie's house in the suburb of Shah Alam here, officials said, without further elaborating. Zaharie, a pilot with 18,365 flight hours under his belt, is reportedly also a flight instructor. He has been in the news after the mysterious disappearance of the plane on March 8. The questions have been raised in the media over a flight simulator found at his home. The move came hours after Prime Minister Najib said the missing aircraft's communication system and the transponder were switched off deliberately "by someone on the plane". He stopped short of saying the plane had been hijacked. Zaharie and co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, were among the 12-member crew of the plane with 227 passengers on board including five Indians and one Indian-origin Canadian. Outside of aviation, he had a YouTube channel dedicated to DIY projects, where he told viewers how to fix home appliances like air-conditioners. 11.51 am: Press conference of Malaysian PM begins Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's press conference begins. He thanks the multi-national search effort, says this has been an unprecedented event. "We followed every credible lead, sometimes they led nowhere," he says. "There has been intense speculation. We understand the desperate need for information on behalf of the families and those watching. But we have a responsibility to the investigation and families to release the information that has been corroborated," he adds. "Data showed that the plane went north of the Straits of Malacca and thus we extended search to the North, and later to Andaman Sea. Investigation authorities have briefed me on what happened to the flight. Based on new satellite communication, with a high-degree of certainty, we can say that aircraft's communication system was disabled. Shortly afterwards, near the border between Malaysia and Vietnamese air space, the plane's transponder was switched off. Malaysia Airforce's data showed that an aircraft believed to be MH370 flew in the opposite direction," he says. "These movements are consistent with deliberate action from someone on the plane," says the PM. "Plane lost communication with satellites. We believe it was flown was in two possible corridors. One in the corridor of North Kazakhstan to Turkmenistan and second from Indonesia to South Indian Ocean. We have also stopped our search operations in South China sea," he added. He refuses to confirm hijacking claims but says it is still being explored. It should be noted that he has not denied the report of hijacking either. The press conference has vastly expanded the search area. Once again nothing conclusive has been revealed in the press conference. 11.30 am: Malaysia PM's press conference set to begin The Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is set to host a press conference to give the latest update on the missing MH370 plane. Here's what is being speculated about the plane for now: 1) Hijack is no longer a theory, it is being looked upon as a conclusive event. According to Associated Press one of the investigators has confirmed that the MH370 was indeed hijacked. This is based on the fact that the plane few on for four hours in the opposite direction. 2) Search in the Indian Ocean has found nothing for now. 3) Search in the Indian Ocean won't be an easy task for the teams given the depth of the Ocean and the vast expanse. There's also a fear that high winds and currents could have swept the debris far away. 4) Plane might have run out of fuel in the Indian Ocean. Another report from Reuters said that the plane could have run out of fuel in the Indian Ocean and then crashed. 11.08 am: Indian search finds no trace of Malaysian plane Indian navy ships supported by surveillance planes and helicopters are scouring Andaman Sea islands for a third day without any success in finding evidence of a missing Malaysia Airlines jet, reports Associated Press. VSR Murthy, a top Indian coast guard official, says the search has been expanded farther west into the Bay of Bengal on Saturday. Nearly a dozen ships, patrol vessels, surveillance aircraft and helicopters have been deployed but Murthy says, "We have got nothing so far." Screengrab of Malaysian Press conference. Seeing no headway, Malaysian authorities suggested Friday a new search area of 9,000 square kilometers (3,474 square miles) to India along the Chennai coast in the Bay of Bengal, India's Defense Ministry said in a statement. 10.30 am: Malaysian hijacking theory: Why it's not an easy task to pull off According to Associated Press reports, investigators have all but confirmed that the plane was indeed hijacked given that it was deliberately flown in the opposite direction. The search for the missing plane has now been expanded into the Indian ocean, which is not an easy task, given the vastness of the Ocean and the sheer depth. As far as pulling off a hijacking is concerned, it still remains highly implausible. Avoiding both air-traffic controllers, military radars are all highly difficult tasks and would require extreme skill on part of the concerned hijackers. Scott Shankland, an American Airlines pilot who spent several years as a co-pilot on Boeing 777s, told Associated Pres,a captain would know how to disable radios and the plane's other tracking systems. "But a hijacker, even one trained to fly a plane, "would probably be hunting and pecking quite a while — 'Do I pull this switch? Do I pull that?' You could disable a great deal" of the tracking equipment, "but possibly not all of it." Experts feel that this a case of a hijacking gone bad. However the fact that no one has claimed responsibility and no motive has been determined, adds to the confusion. Hopefully the Malaysian PM's press conference will make the picture clearer today. 10.15 am: Malaysian PM holding emergency press conference Malaysian PM will hold an emergency press conference today shortly. He is likely to give updates on the fact that the plane was indeed hijacked. 10:00 am: Investigators conclude flight was hijacked Investigators have concluded that one or more people with significant flying experience hijacked the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, switched off communication devices and steered it off-course, a Malaysian government official involved in the investigation said on Saturday, according to an Associated Press report. No motive has been established and no demands have been made known, and it is not yet clear where the plane was taken, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media. The official said that hijacking was no longer a theory. "It is conclusive," he said. He said evidence that led to the conclusion were signs that the plane's communications were switched off deliberately, data about the flight path and indications the plane was steered in a way to avoid detection by radar. 8.00 am: Investigators looking at foul play The mystery of the missing Malaysian flight is now continuing for the the second week and according to reports from Reuters, the investigators are now seriously exploring the question of foul play. Evvidence suggests it was deliberately flown hundreds of miles off course, sources familiar with the Malaysian probe told Reuters. Two sources told Reuters that military radar data showed an unidentified aircraft that investigators suspect was Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 following a commonly used navigational route toward the Middle East and Europe when it was last spotted early on March 8, northwest of Malaysia. That course - headed into the Andaman Sea and towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean - could only have been set deliberately, either by flying the Boeing 777-200ER jet manually or by programming ALSO SEE Australia says satellites spot objects possibly from Malaysian plane Orion planes to binoculars: Equipment being used to search for MH370 RELATED VIDEOS Missing Malaysia jet: Was 'alright, goodnight' really pilot's last words? Who were the Indians on board the missing Malaysia Airlines jet? Did SpiceJet's mid-air Holi antics endanger passenger safety?
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