More than four days since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared over Southeast Asia, Malaysian officials not only dont know what happened to the plane, they dont seem sure where to look. On Wednesday, officials announced they had once again expanded the search area. It now covers 27,000 square miles, more than double the size of the area being searched just a day before. Such a dramatic expansion at this stage of the investigation is troubling, said CNN aviation expert Richard Quest. At this stage in the investigation and search and rescue, I would have expected to see by now a much more defined understanding of what the route was, where the plane was headed and a narrowing of the search consequent upon that, he said on CNNs New Day. Indeed, the lack of a clear direction prompted Vietnam to say Wednesday that its pulling back on its search efforts until Malaysian authorities come up with better information on where to look for the plane. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished early Saturday with 239 people on board during a flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. Phan Quy Tieu, Vietnams vice minister of transportation, said the information Malaysian officials provided was insufficient. Up until now we only had one meeting with a Malaysian military attache, he said. For now, Vietnamese teams will stop searching the sea south of Ca Mau province, the southern tip of Vietnam, and shift the focus to areas east of Ca Mau, said Doan Luu, the director of international affairs at the Vietnamese Civil Aviation Authority. At a news conference Wednesday, Malaysian transportation minister Hishamuddin Bin Hussein defended his governments approach. We have been very consistent in the search, he said. READ: Timeline of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Confusion over flight path At a news conference Wednesday, Malaysian authorities said that radar records reviewed in the wake of the planes diappearance revealed an unidentified aircraft traveling across the Malay Peninsula some 200 miles into the Straits of Malacca. It wasnt clear if the radar signal represented Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, officials said. Adding further confusion, the signal came at 2:15 a.m. Saturday, about 25 minutes before the time a senior Malaysian Air Force official said civilian and military radar had lost the planes radar reflection. The official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, placed the last known location of the plane near the tiny island of Palau Perak in the Straits of Malacca. The planes identifying transponder had stopped sending signals, too, the official said. Suggestions that the plane had veered off course and that its identifying transponder was not working raise obvious concerns about a hijacking, analysts tell CNN. But a catastrophic power failure or other problem could also explain the anomalies, analysts say. At the news briefing Wednesday, however, Gen. Rodzali Daud, head of the Malaysian Air Force, and other officials said it wasnt yet clear whether the object that showed up on military radar flying over the sea northwest of the Malaysian coast early Saturday was the missing plane. The officials said they are asking experts from the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority and National Transportation Safety Board to help them analyze the radar data. Rodzali said Wednesday that officials are still examining and analyzing all possibilities when it comes to the planes flight path. Adding to the confusion, The New York Times quoted a spokesman for the Malaysian prime ministers office as saying military officials had told him there was no evidence the plane had flown back over the Malay Peninsula to the Straits of Malacca. The Prime Ministers office didnt immediately return calls from CNN seeking comment Wednesday. How you can help find the plane No trace The search zones includes huge swaths of ocean on each side of the Malay Peninsula, as well as land. Forty-two ships and 39 planes from 12 countries have been searching the sea between the northeast coast of Malaysia and southwest Vietnam, the area where the plane lost contact with air traffic controllers. But they are also looking off the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, in the Straits of Malacca, and north into the Andaman Sea. So far, searchers have found no trace of the plane. Families frustration As the vexing search drags on, frustration has grown among friends and family of those who were on board. Time is passing by. The priority should be to search for the living, a middle-aged man shouted before breaking into sobs during a meeting with airline officials in Beijing on Tuesday. His son, he said, was one of the passengers aboard the plane. Other people at the meeting also voiced their frustration at the lack of information. Most of those on the flight were Chinese, and the Chinese government has urged Malaysia to speed up the pace of its investigation. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Wednesday appealed for patience. The families involved have to understand that this is something unexpected, Najib said. The families must understand more efforts have been made with all our capabilities.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 16:32:52 +0000
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