INDONESIAN AIR FORCE TAKES PART IN THE SEARCH FOR MISSING JETLINER FLIGHT MH370

Kuala Lumpur, 11 Jumadil Awwal 1435/12 March 2014 (MINA) – Indonesia Air Force Col. Umar Fathur said the country had received official information from Malaysian authorities that the plane was above the South China Sea, about 12 miles from Kota Bharu, Malaysia, when it turned back toward the strait and then disappeared. That would place its last confirmed position closer to Malaysia than has previously been publicly disclosed.

Recovering debris from Flight MH370 is vital to finding out what caused it to go missing and to prevent a repeat, as well as providing some closure for the families of the people on board. In the absence of evidence, speculation over possible causes ranges widely, Al Jazeera and wire services quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Wednesday.

More than four days after a Malaysian jetliner went missing en route to Beijing, authorities acknowledged Wednesday they didn’t know which direction the plane carrying 239 passengers was heading when it disappeared, vastly complicating efforts to find it.

Amid intensifying confusion and occasionally contradictory statements, the country’s civil aviation authorities and the military said Flight MH370 may have turned back from its last known position between Malaysia and Vietnam, possibly as far as the Strait of Malacca, a busy shipping lane on the western side of Malaysia.

How it might have done this without being clearly detected remains a mystery, raising questions over whether its electrical systems, including transponders allowing it to be spotted by radar, were either knocked out or turned off. If it did manage to fly on, that would challenge earlier theories that the plane may have suffered a catastrophic incident, initially thought reasonable because it didn’t send out any distress signals.

Authorities have not ruled out any possible cause, including mechanical failure, pilot error, sabotage or terrorism. Both the Boeing 777 and Malaysia Airlines have excellent safety records.

The search area has been expanded to almost 27,000 nautical square miles (an area roughly equivalent to the state of Indiana), authorities said, adding that 42 ships and 39 aircraft have been deployed to search for MH370.

“Our immediate focus is to find the aircraft,” said Malaysian Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. “We are focusing on both the South China Sea and Straits of Malacca.”

Coast guards from India’s remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands joined the search on Wednesday.

The Boeing 777 had 239 people on board when it vanished off radar screens early Saturday morning en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, triggering the massive international search effort.

Authorities began their hunt where the plane was last known to be, a spot over the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam. With no debris found, they have systematically expanded their search to include areas where the plane could have ended up, given the amount of fuel it had.

Malaysian authorities said the search operations shifted west on Tuesday and were ongoing in the Strait of Malacca. Scores of planes and aircraft have been scouring waters in both locations.

The country’s air force chief, Gen. Rodzali Daud, released a statement denying remarks attributed to him in local media saying that military radar had managed to track the aircraft turning back from its original course, crossing the country and making it to the Strait of Malacca.

The confusion has prompted speculation that different arms of the government have different opinions over where the plane is most likely to be, or even that authorities are holding back information. 

The Strait of Malacca, which separates Malaysia from Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, is some 250 miles from where Flight MH370 was last known to have made contact with ground control officials over the Gulf of Thailand at a height of 35,000 feet early Saturday.

Indonesia Air Force takes part in the search

Indonesia Air Force Col. Umar Fathur said the country had received official information from Malaysian authorities that the plane was above the South China Sea, about 12 miles from Kota Bharu, Malaysia, when it turned back toward the strait and then disappeared. That would place its last confirmed position closer to Malaysia than has previously been publicly disclosed.

Recovering debris from Flight MH370 is vital to finding out what caused it to go missing and to prevent a repeat, as well as providing some closure for the families of the people on board. In the absence of evidence, speculation over possible causes ranges widely.

On Sunday, Malaysia Airlines said it was “fearing the worst,” and the government said it was investigating four passengers who may have held false identity documents. Malaysian investigators are checking the identities of those four people but have not determined if the plane was downed by an attack, Hishammuddin said.

The passenger manifest issued by the airline included the names of two Europeans who were not on the plane, according to their foreign ministries, because their passports had been lost or stolen.

Interpol said the passports were likely taken by two Iranians, ages 18 and 29, who started their trip in Doha, Qatar, swapped their passports in Kuala Lumpur and used stolen Italian and Austrian passports to board the airliner.

Interpol made the names public of the two individuals listed on the Iranian passports — Pouri Nourmohammadi and Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza — in hopes it might compel family and friends to offer tips that could allow authorities to exclude terrorism theories.

But Interpol’s chief said on Tuesday the organization was increasingly skeptical that the plane may have been brought down by an attack of some kind. “The more information we get, the more we are inclined to conclude it is not a terrorist incident,” said Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble.

The BBC reported Wednesday that the two Iranians were “looking for a better life,” after interviewing the man the pair stayed with in a Kuala Lumpur suburb the night before their flight.

“Mohammed” (who wished to keep his identity a secret) said the two men had flown from Iran and were looking to go to Europe and gain asylum. “The two were looking for freedom,” Mohammed said.

Malaysian authorities said Nourmohammadi was thought to be trying to emigrate to Germany. Iranian officials on Tuesday pledged to help investigate the two men’s backgrounds.

Malaysian authorities said they were looking into as many scenarios as possible. “Maybe somebody on the flight has bought a huge sum of insurance, who wants family to gain from it or somebody who has owed somebody so much money. You know, we are looking at all possibilities,” Malaysia’s Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar said. (T/E01/IR)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)