India Help in Search For Missing Malaysia Airlines Plane

Friday, 14th March 2014 at 10:40am

The search for the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight 370 that went missing shortly after its take-off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, has expanded its coverage towards the Andaman Sea, west of the peninsular Malaysia. The ill-fated flight carried with it more than 220 passengers and crew was en route to Beijing, China from Kuala Lumpur.

The search for the ill-fated flight 370 of Malaysian Airlines has widened its scope beyond the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea and shifted to the west of the peninsular Malaysia, specifically in the Andaman Sea, when information was gathered about the possibility that the plane may have remained airborne and veered sharply from its northeastward direction.

More international search teams joined the search effort by the Malaysian government along with Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Thailand, the United States and China who were the first countries to respond to the mysterious disappearance of the plane in March 8.

At the request of the Malaysian government, more countries sent their respective search teams such as the Australia, France, Russia, Japan, United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, among others.

The U.S. search team, for example, has deployed a night mission over the vast Indian Ocean, more than 1,000 miles west of the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The US team is expected to concentrate its own search mission on the Indian Ocean.

The doomed plane, designated a flight number MH370, was carrying around 239 people on board including 12 crew members, all of whom were Malaysians. More than two-thirds of the passengers, however, were composed of Chinese citizens, 152 in all, as well as 38 Malaysians.

The plane was reportedly able to send signals repeatedly to satellites five hours after its disappearance from radar. The satellites, furthermore, continuously received speed as well as altitude information about the plane from its 'pings', according to some reports. The 'pings', an industry insider said, was an indication that someone on board could have disabled the aircraft's signal transmission system.

The Indian naval search team, meanwhile, upon request from the Malaysian authorities, focuses their search over Andaman Sea particularly the archipelago of Nicobar and Andaman islands which stretch 450 miles from north to south, encompassing 572 islands, 37 of which are inhabited. The Indian search team comprises the biggest search mission with the involvement of a combination of surface and airborne assets such as navy ships, planes, helicopters, coast guard vessels, etc.

The Malaysian government requested the Indian counterpart to search the area equivalent to 9,000 square kilometers along India's eastern coastal waters.

The doomed flight would have arrived Beijing by 5:49 am local time after taking off at Kuala Lumpur International Airport a few minutes after midnight on its nine-long northeastward flight. The mysterious disappearance of the plane baffled the world and easily became one of the most baffling aviation incidents in history.

By: Pete Lee.