- Searchers still don't know if the aircraft has come down on land or sea
- Experts say it was hijacked or sabotaged by someone who knew controls
- Plane’s last signal picked up by a satellite orbiting above the Indian Ocean
- Total area now being examined amounts to 28million square miles
- That is equivalent to twice the size of Africa or a tenth of the planet
- The hunt for the missing Malaysian airliner switched to land yesterday, as authorities announced that searches are now being carried out across 11 countries.
A huge area spanning the rainforests of South East Asia and the landscapes of former Soviet Union republics is now part of the investigation into the fate of Flight MH370, which set out nine days ago on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Excruciatingly for the families of the 239 people on board, searchers from 25 nations still have no idea whether the aircraft has come down on land or sea.
A huge area spanning the rainforests of South East Asia and the landscapes of former Soviet Union republics is now part of the investigation into the fate of Flight MH370
But experts have concluded that it was hijacked or sabotaged by someone with knowledge of the controls – and from the moment it swerved away from its path could have headed south into the southern Indian Ocean or north in a gentle curve to Central Asia.
The plane’s last signal, which was picked up by a satellite orbiting more than 22,000 miles above the Indian Ocean, placed it along one of two arcs – referred to as air corridors.
One runs from the southern border of Kazakhstan in Central Asia to northern Thailand.
The other runs from near Jakarta, Indonesia, to the Indian Ocean, some 1,000 miles off Australia’s west coast.
The authorities believe the last signals picked up by satellite could possibly have been transmitted when the plane was on land – and yesterday, after a fruitless hunt of oceans to the east and west of Malaysia, authorities in Kuala Lumpur announced that searches have begun across 11 different countries.
Thailand, Burma, China, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have been included with Indonesia in the investigation.
The total area now being examined amounts to 28million square miles, equivalent to twice the size of Africa or a tenth of the planet.
The ‘straight line’ distance from the most southerly point of the search, in the southern Indian Ocean, to the most northerly area in Central Asia is an enormous 6,000 miles.
And in a remarkable development, Indian officials have suggested that the jet could have ‘slipped through’ radar gaps on its way over the ocean.
Rear Admiral Sudhir Pillai explained: ‘We have many radar systems operating in this area. Nothing was picked up, but it’s possible that the military radars were switched off as we operate on an “as required” basis.’
And senior Indian Air Force and Navy officers have admitted there are a ‘few gaps’ in the country’s civil and military radar networks, a measure which keeps costs down – although they stressed that it would be ‘virtually impossible’ for it to have crossed into Indian air space and remain undetected.
The same applies to Pakistan, which has led some to believe that the jet did not get as far as the subcontinent.
If it did not plunge into the Indian Ocean, the plane could have landed on an airstrip long enough to accommodate a Boeing 777 – a required distance of 5,000ft, or almost a mile.
US radio station WNYC has put together a list of 634 runways that meet this criteria in the flying range from Kuala Lumpur of the missing jet – with some located in far-flung destinations such as Mongolia and Yap in Micronesia.
Malaysian transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday that the search had become ‘even more difficult’.
He added: ‘This is a significant recalibration. What we’re doing here may change aviation history.’
Hishammuddin Hussain added that the number of countries involved in the operation had increased from 14 to 25.
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