The Malaysian transport minister on Thursday dismissed claims that the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft may have flown on for about four hours past the time it disappeared off tracking systems.
Photographer | Collection | Getty Images
a patrol vessel of Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency searches during the search and rescue mission for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 off the Kelantan coast, Malaysia.
The Wall Street Journal had reported Thursday that the plane, and the 239 people on board, could have flown on for an additional distance of about 2,200 miles (3,500 km), potentially reaching the border of Pakistan or as far as destinations in the Indian Ocean or Arabian Sea. The paper cited two people familiar with the details.
However, Malaysia's Transport Minister Seri Hishammuddin said at a news conference that this report was wrong and that their search efforts had always been focused on the South China Sea.
The last definitive sighting of the aircraft on civilian radar screens came shortly before 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, as it flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand bound for Beijing.
Malaysian Airlines' CEO told a press conference Thursday that the last data transmission from the plane was recorded about 30 minutes after take-off. Ahmad Jauhari Yahya also said that Boeing and Rolls Royce did not receive any further data from the missing plane.
No traces of the Boeing aircraft travelling to Beijing, China's capital city, have been found even as a multinational search effort has extended its search area.
China
Photographer | Collection | Getty Images
a patrol vessel of Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency searches during the search and rescue mission for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 off the Kelantan coast, Malaysia.
The Wall Street Journal had reported Thursday that the plane, and the 239 people on board, could have flown on for an additional distance of about 2,200 miles (3,500 km), potentially reaching the border of Pakistan or as far as destinations in the Indian Ocean or Arabian Sea. The paper cited two people familiar with the details.
However, Malaysia's Transport Minister Seri Hishammuddin said at a news conference that this report was wrong and that their search efforts had always been focused on the South China Sea.
The last definitive sighting of the aircraft on civilian radar screens came shortly before 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, as it flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand bound for Beijing.
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| NJVF:Map showing the site where objects have been spotted by Chinese satelliites |
Malaysian Airlines' CEO told a press conference Thursday that the last data transmission from the plane was recorded about 30 minutes after take-off. Ahmad Jauhari Yahya also said that Boeing and Rolls Royce did not receive any further data from the missing plane.
No traces of the Boeing aircraft travelling to Beijing, China's capital city, have been found even as a multinational search effort has extended its search area.
China
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| Chinese satellite images capturing objects in the South China sea. |