Missing plane flew (maybe) for several hours, search widened to Indian Ocean
Kuala Lumpur
(AsiaNews / Agencies) - Experts in Washington, called upon to investigate the
disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, are "shifting their focus" towards
"the Indian Ocean region". A U.S.
official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says the widening of the search operations
is not due to any new information on the fate of the aircraft. The
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that "because of new information, we may
be part of an effort to open a new search area", so far concentrated in the
South China Sea that separates Malaysia from Vietnam. In
the absence of any confirmation of a pilot error, or midflight explosion, or structural
failure, counter-terrorism experts are not ruling out that it may be a case of "air
piracy".
The
flight disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board, mostly Chinese. So
far the massive search operation including dozens of ships, helicopters and
fighter jets from at least eight different nations has failed to find anything.
The
White House explained that based on "new information", the United States has
decided to extend the research to the Indian Ocean, west of the Malaysian
peninsula. At
the same time, U.S. government officials told the BBC the intelligence was
"not concrete enough to merit a rise in expectations".
India
has also joined the search operations, with navy vessels and air force jets at
the request of the government in Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile,
some elements that have just emerged - which have not yet been confirmed by
Malaysia - seem to refute the hypothesis of a sudden incident. According
to reports from the Wall Street Journal, the plane's engines continued to
transmit signals for another 4 or 5 hours after the disappearance of the flight
from radar. If confirmed, the news would indicate that the MH370 continued to
fly and probably precipitated at a later time in the Indian Ocean and in an
unknown location.
There
was enough fuel on board to travel for at least another four hours. Investigation
sources add that it could have traveled
up to 1600 km away from the point last visible on radar. Meanwhile,
two U.S. officials have told broadcaster ABC that two different communication
systems, which are present on the plane, were turned off at different times,
corroborating the thesis of a voluntary gesture. The
data transmission system stopped working 1.07 am, while the transponder -
useful to detect the location and altitude of the aircraft - was turned off
fifteen minutes later, around 1.21.
The
already intricate plot is further thickened by the news just announced by a
team of seismologists from a prestigious university in China, that they
recorded a "mild seismic event" in the seas that separate Malaysia and Vietnam
on March 8. This
phenomenon, experts warn, could be compatible with a plane crash at sea and,
therefore, be linked to the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines flight.
The
tremor occurred at 2:55 am, about 150 km from the southern tip of Vietnam. "It's not an earthquake zone - say academics
- and looking at the time and place, may be linked to the disappearance of
flight MH370".
The
Boeing 777-200 carried 239 people, including a crew of 12, disappearing over
the sea, just south of Vietnam. The passenger list included 153 Chinese,
38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, as well as some Australians, Europeans and
Americans. Malaysia Airlines has had a good safety record, with nearly four
decades without an accident. Its worst accident occurred in 1977 when one
accident left 100 people dead. In recent years, the company lost revenues due
to the competition from low-cost airlines, including Air Asia, another
Malaysia-based company. Every day, Malaysia's national carrier flies
nearly 37,000 passengers to some 80 destinations worldwide.
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