Search for MH370 intensifies in northern, southern corridors

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 intensified Tuesday over two huge arcs of territory north and south of where the plane last made contact.

China began searching north-western parts of its territory in areas along the possible northern corridor, said the Chinese ambassador in Kuala Lumpur, Huang Huikang, according to the Xinhua news agency.

He added that background checks on all the passengers had found no evidence of links to terrorism or involvement in a possible hijack, Xinhua said.

Australia was leading the search on the southern corridor. The New Zealand government said Tuesday it was sending an air force plane to Australia at the request of the Malaysian government to help with the international operation to find the plane.

As the investigation into the pilot and co-pilot continued, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he had met the pilot, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, at political meetings, but criticised any attempt to draw a political link to the plane’s disappearance, the South China Morning Post reported.

The search for the Boeing 777-200, which disappeared on March 8 after it took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport with 239 people on board, is now in its 11th day.

“Another day — hope and pray we find something today,” tweeted Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who has fronted the official press briefings since the plane disappeared from radar.

The search for a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that disappeared without a trace on March 8 has expanded to include a wider area spanning from Australia to Kazakhstan.

Hishammuddin said Australia sent a P-3 Orion aircraft to search in the region of the Cocos Islands and Christmas Island, while Malaysia deployed two ships and a Super Lynx helicopter.

Australia is to dispatch two more P-3 Orion aircraft and a C-130 Hercules, while a US P-8 Poseidon aircraft is expected in Perth to join the search, he said.

The US Navy said the Orion and Poseidon aircraft are more suited to the current mission because they are equipped with advanced surface search radars and electro—optical sensors and can fly low for visual identification.

The Navy announced that the USS Kidd was ending its participation in the search. The move was made in consultation with Malaysia, the US 7th Fleet said. The Kidd will move south through the Strait of Malacca to the South China Sea and be available for any additional tasks.

China has criticised Malaysia’s handling of the crisis and failure to provide transparent information. Premier Li Keqiang called on his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak to provide comprehensive details of the investigation as soon as possible, China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported.

“I understand that every day prolongs the anguish. I understand because Malaysia, too, is missing its sons and daughters. There were 50 Malaysians on board the plane,” Hishammuddin said.

“We would not withhold any information that could help,” he said.

“But we also have a responsibility not to release information until it has been verified by the international investigations team.” The refocus on search and rescue operations came after Najib on Saturday said the jet’s disappearance had been a “deliberate” act.

The aircraft’s communication system was intentionally disabled before it flew for up to seven hours toward an unknown destination, he said.

Police have since intensified background checks on the passengers and crew. Hishammuddin said he asked China to re-check the passenger manifest containing the names of 154 Chinese and Taiwanese nationals.

In addition to a hijacking, investigators are exploring the possibility of a suicide bid by the pilot or co-pilot, sabotage, kidnapping and terrorism.

Asked if suicide was being investigated, Hishammuddin replied: “Yes, we are looking at it.” A police source said investigators were studying the flight simulator found at the home of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 52.

The experienced pilot is a member of Malaysia’s opposition party, whose leader, Anwar Ibrahim, was convicted of sodomy a few hours before the jet disappeared.

“So far there’s no evidence politics was involved in this incident,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

The source confirmed that authorities had found nothing so far to link aircraft engineer Khairul Amri Selamat, a Malaysia, to any wrongdoing.

Malaysia Airlines said co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid and not Zaharie is most likely to have made the final spoken communication with air traffic control in Kuala Lumpur before the aircraft disappeared from radar.

“Initial investigation indicates that it was the co-pilot who spoke the last time it was recorded on the tape,” said Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the airline’s chief executive.

He quoted the voice from the cockpit as saying, “All right, goodnight,” at 1:19 am on March 8 (1719 GMT March 7), 12 minutes after the last transmission of data from the jet’s ACARS communications system.

Ahmad Jauhari said mobile phone companies supplied no evidence that anyone on board had tried to call or send text messages after the aircraft vanished.

“So far we have not had any evidence from any telephone company of any number trying to (make) contact,” he said. “We are still checking. There are millions of records that they have to process.” Media reports said the mobiles of some of the passengers on the missing MH 370 flight were still ringing days after the plane disappeared.

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