Missing MH370: Timeline of events (Day 8) - The Star Online KUALA LUMPUR: The search for flight MH370 entered its eighth day on Saturday as evidence emerged that the planes course was deliberately changed by someone on board. Here is a timeline of the main developments since the Boeing 777 with 239 people vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing: MARCH 8 - MAS says the Boeing 777 lost contact with air traffic control at around 1:30 am (1730 GMT Friday), about an hour after take-off from KL International Airport. Initially, authorities had put the last contact time at 2:40 am. - Vietnam says the plane went missing near its airspace. It launches a search operation that expands into a huge international hunt in the South China Sea, involving dozens of ships and aircraft from countries including the US and Japan. - Tearful relatives of the 153 Chinese passengers criticise Malaysia Airlines over a lack of information. - Vietnamese planes spot two large oil slicks near the planes last known location, but it proves a false alarm. - It also emerges that two passengers were travelling on stolen EU passports, fuelling speculation of a terrorist attack. MARCH 9 - Malaysia says it is probing a possible terror link to the jets disappearance. The US sends FBI agents to assist in the investigation. - Malaysia raises the first of several suggestions that the plane may have veered radically off-course - with the air force chief saying it may have turned back towards Kuala Lumpur for no apparent reason. - A Vietnamese plane spots possible debris off southwest Vietnam - but this too yields no sign of the airliner. MARCH 10 - Authorities double the search radius to 100 nautical miles (equivalent to 185 kilometres) around the point where MH370 disappeared from radar. - China lashes out at Malaysia, saying it needs to speed up the investigation. - Malaysia sends ships to investigate a sighting of a possible life raft, but a Vietnamese vessel that gets there first finds only flotsam. - Chemical analysis by Malaysia disproves any link between oil slicks found at sea and the missing plane. MARCH 11 - The search area now includes land on the Malaysian peninsula itself, the waters off its west coast, and an area to the north of Indonesias Sumatra island - all far removed from the flights scheduled route. - Authorities identify the two men with stolen passports as young Iranians who are believed to be illegal immigrants - not terrorists. MARCH 12 - Malaysia expands the search zone to include the Malacca Strait off the countrys west coast and the Andaman Sea north of Indonesia, hundreds of kilometres away. - Malaysias air force chief says an unidentified object was detected on military radar north of the Malacca Strait early Saturday - less than an hour after the plane lost contact - but says it is still being investigated. - At a heated news conference, Malaysian officials deny that the search is in disarray after China says conflicting information about its course is pretty chaotic. - It emerges that US regulators warned months ago of a problem with cracking and corrosion of the fuselage skin under the satellite antenna on Boeing 777s that could lead to a mid-air break-up - but the manufacturer later confirms that the warning did not apply to the missing plane, which had a different kind of antenna. MARCH 13 - Malaysia dismisses a report in the Wall Street Journal which said US investigators suspect the plane flew on for four hours after its last known contact, based on data sent from its engines. - Authorities in Kuala Lumpur also say that Chinese satellite images of suspected debris in the South China Sea are yet another false lead. - India steps up its search, sending three ships and three aircraft to the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands. MARCH 14 - The hunt spreads west to the Indian Ocean after the White House cites unspecified new information that the jet may have flown on after losing contact. - Malaysia declines to comment on US media reports that cite US officials as saying the planes communication system - not the engines - continued to ping a satellite for hours after it disappeared, suggesting it may have travelled a huge distance. MARCH 15 - A Malaysian senior military official tells AFP the missing jet was turned towards the Indian Ocean by a skilled, competent pilot. -Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announces the plane was flown for hours in a manner consistent with deliberate action after dropping off primary radar. - At a nationally televised press conference, Najib says Malaysia is still investigating all possibilities as to what caused the airliner to deviate from its original flight path. - Authorities in Kuala Lumpur call off the hunt in the South China Sea, as a US destroyer and surveillance plane join expanded search operations in the Indian Ocean.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 11:09:49 +0000
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