Aircraft Charter: March 2014

Sunday 30 March 2014

New finds reported as search steps up for missing Malaysia Airlines jet

Australia hunts for flight MH3701:23

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Four orange objects spotted in Indian Ocean as the batteries in the black box of a missing Malaysia Airlines jet are running out. Gavino Garay reports.

The Australian ship Ocean Shield prepares to set sail from near Perth in the search for debris from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 Source: AP

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AN Australian aircraft has spotted four orange-coloured objects in the ocean off Western Australia as the search intensifies for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370.

The four objects were more than two metres in size and sighted by the crew of an Australian P3 Orion search plane, said the pilot, Flight Lt Russell Adams, after returning to base.

“I must stress that we can’t confirm the origin of these objects,’’ he said, adding that images of the items have yet to be verified, and a GPS buoy was dropped and ships must still investigate.

Flt Lt Adams said it was “the most visibility we had of any objects in the water and gave us the most promising leads.’’

The sightings are just the latest in a number of leads that have so far produced no confirmed debris from the Boeing 777, which went missing on March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard, including six Australians.

The search for clues will go more hi-tech today when an Australian navy vessel heads out into the Indian Ocean from Perth with special equipment able to detect signals from the black box flight recorders on the missing flight.

HUNT: Goes hi-tech

The Ocean Shield was due within the Indian Ocean search zone early today to join an international array of ships and aircraft scouring the seas for any sign of the lost plane.

The specialist US Navy technology on board the Ocean Shield will not be able to detect the “pinger’’ within the plane’s flight recorders until a more confined search area is identified.

It had been feared the 30-day life of the black boxes could expire before the equipment arrives.

But Captain Mark Matthews, the US Navy supervisor of salvage and diving, says the recorders are certified for 30 days but could last up to 15 days longer than that.

Australian Navy Commodore Peter Leavy said the focus was still to find debris and confirm it was from flight MH370, then work backwards to a possible crash site.

“The search area remains vast and this equipment can only be effectively employed when there is a high probability that the final location of Flight MH370 is better known,’’ he said.

The Ocean Shield is also carrying an unmanned submersible vehicle which can be used to sonar map and photograph debris on the sea floor if the black box signal is located.

Although a number of satellite cameras and aircraft crews have spotted objects in the water, no confirmed debris from the Boeing 777 has been picked up by surface vessels.

Officials yesterday said the first debris picked up by ships combing an updated search area about 1850km west of Perth was not from the stricken plane.

“It appeared to be fishing equipment and just rubbish on the (ocean’s) surface,’’ said a spokesman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is in charge of the operation.

For a full week, searchers relied on satellite imagery from various countries as they tried to find the plane in a zone to the south of the current area. They abruptly shifted the site on Friday after authorities concluded the plane could not have travelled as far as they had thought based on its estimated speed and fuel consumption.

The search area is so big that investigators are first hoping to find floating debris so they could set a smaller zone using sophisticated analysis to determine a location from where the pieces drifted. Even if they do that, recovering the flight recorders could be complicated.

Despite the huge area, one advantage is the seabed of the search zone is generally flat, with the exception of a steep slope and a deep trench near its southern end.

The area is dominated by a muddy ocean floor known as Broken Ridge, which is actually a plateau where depths range from as shallow as about 800 metres to about 3000 metres.

At the edge of the plateau closest to Antarctica is the Diamantina trench, which has been found to be as deep as 5800 metres within the confines of the search zone, although it could be deeper in places that have not been measured.

Captain Matthews said the Navy’s ping locator has the “capability to do search-and-recovery operations down to a depth of 20,000 feet.’’

Information on the flight data and cockpit voice recorders may help investigators resolve what happened on Flight 370. Speculation includes equipment failure, a botched hijacking, terrorism or an act by one of the pilots.

AAP/AP

Saturday 29 March 2014

Ships Recover Unidentified Objects in Flight 370 Search

By Michael Sin and Iain McDonald Mar 30, 2014 8:23 AM GMT+1100

Source: Australian Maritime Safety Authority via Bloomberg

Australian and Chinese ships recovered unidentified objects from the Indian Ocean as the search for Malaysian Air Flight 370 enters its fourth week.
Australia’s HMAS Success and China’s Haixun 01 retrieved “a number of objects from the ocean but so far no objects confirmed to be related” to the missing plane, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement yesterday.
It was the first time in the search that material had been picked up. The U.K.’s Daily Mail cited Chinese state media as saying that three objects turned out to be pieces of rubbish.
Six ships are on the way to the revised search zone, bringing the total to 10 in the international effort, the Australian agency said in a morning update. In addition, the HMAS Toowoomba frigate left Perth last night and should arrive to the search area in about three days, it said. Eight aircraft sighted multiple items yesterday in a search area that covered about 252,000 square kilometers (97,300 square miles), while 10 planes will be involved in today’s search.
White, red and orange “suspicious objects” had been seen as the Chinese ship Jinggangshan, carrying two helicopters, joined the Haixun 01 in the search area, the official Xinhua news agency said. Equipment from the U.S. Navy to track the plane’s black box recorder has arrived in Perth and will be deployed when needed, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said yesterday.

Large Area

Time may be running out as the battery-powered beacons that help locate the black boxes on the Boeing Co. (BA)’s 777 last about 30 days. The latest lead in the search was based on radar and performance data as the jet flew between the South China Sea and Malacca Strait, authorities said. It shows the jet moved faster, using more fuel, and may not have crashed as far south as estimated earlier.
“This is still an attempt to search a very large area, and for surface debris, which will give us an indication of where the main aircraft wreckage is likely to be,” Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, said March 28 in Canberra. “This has a long way to go yet.”
Examinations of the home flight simulator of the jet’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, haven’t found anything sinister, Malaysia’s Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Britain’s MI6 and Chinese intelligence agencies are helping with the investigation, he said.

FBI Analysis

Technicians from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation have almost finished extracting data from the pilot’s digital media, which include the hard drive from his flight simulator, and the bureau is almost halfway done in the analysis of that data, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the probe remains active. The official said no smoking gun has emerged thus far, though the FBI’s work won’t be complete for another few days or a week.
Even then, the official said, what may seem irrelevant now may take on new significance in light of future developments or information gleaned in the multinational investigation into what occurred on the plane.
The new search zone is 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) to the northeast of the previous area, off Australia’s west coast. Investigators narrowed in on the area with an analysis assuming that Flight 370 traveled at close to constant velocity.

P3 Orion

A New Zealand P3 Orion patrol plane found 11 objects inside a small radius, about 1,600 kilometers directly west of Perth, Air Vice-Marshall Kevin Short, commander of joint forces New Zealand said in a telephone interview yesterday. While the objects were mostly rectangular, white and less than 1 meter (3.3 feet) in size, there was a larger, slightly blue object and another colored orange and about the size of a shipping buoy.
Five aircraft spotted “multiple objects of various colors” before the search concluded on March 28, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, or AMSA.
Yesterday’s search was conducted in suitable conditions that may deteriorate, AMSA said. The search area is about 1,850 kilometers west of Perth and spans 319,000 square kilometers, compared with an 80,000-kilometer region scoured on March 27.
Because the latest search zone is closer to Australia than previous locations, aircraft have more time over the ocean. The hunt also moves outside of the so-called Roaring Forties, a region between the 40th and 50th degrees of latitude south known for strong winds and wave conditions. Ocean depth in the area ranges from 2,000 meters to 4,000 meters.

Credible Lead

“This is the most credible lead to where debris may be located,” AMSA said.
Along with Chinese and Australian vessels, the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation is redirecting satellites to scan the region as well. The Federal Aviation Administration and the U.K.’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch are also assisting the search.
“You’ve practically got everybody in the aviation industry involved in the search and rescue,” Hishammuddin told reporters after meeting with the families of passengers. “This is the best time for everybody to relook, not only on the question of the aviation landscape but also on the issue of security and defense.”
The search for Flight 370 initially focused on the Gulf of Thailand, south of Vietnam, before switching to the Malacca Strait and Andaman Sea after radar data showed that the plane had backtracked west across the Malaysian peninsula.

No Survivors

The hunt was then extended thousands of miles from the original search zone after analysis of satellite signals suggested the plane had continued flying for five hours in one of two possible arcs over the Indian Ocean or Asian landmass.
Inmarsat Plc (ISAT) concluded last week that the profile of satellite pings showed the jet definitely took the southern arc, prompting Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS) to say that the 777 had crashed into the ocean and that there was no hope of survivors.
Satellite sightings had appeared to be helping the multinational search to home in on wreckage from the aircraft that vanished on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew.
Photos from a Thai orbiter on March 24 showed more than 300 objects measuring 2 meters to 15 meters floating 2,700 kilometers southwest of Perth, an area close to prior sightings from space. A Japanese satellite detected a dozen pieces of possible debris in a March 26 image, Kyodo News Service said.

No Wreckage

Areas where satellite images had previously shown objects in the ocean were checked and no plane wreckage had been found, Andrea Hayward-Maher, an AMSA spokeswoman, said on March 28.
Since the focus shifted to the southern Indian Ocean more than a week ago, planes have made multiple sightings of debris, including a wooden pallet with straps and unidentified green and orange objects, none of which have been recovered.
The Malaysian aircraft may have cruised steadily across the Indian Ocean after diverting from its route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, according to Inmarsat. The jet flew over the equator and away from the satellite, according to analysis by the engineers, spokesman Chris McLaughlin said.
Recovery of the data and cockpit-voice recorders from the 777, which can emit pings for 30 days after becoming immersed in water, would help investigators decipher the plane’s movements and its pilots’ actions in the hours after contact was lost.
The search for debris is critical so “we can reverse-forecast the wind, current and sea state since March 8 to recreate the position where MH370 possibly went into the water,” Commander Tom Moneymaker, an oceanographer with the U.S. 7th Fleet, said in a Navy News Service article.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Sin in Sydney at msin12@bloomberg.net; Iain McDonald in Sydney at imcdonald7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anand Krishnamoorthy at anandk@bloomberg.net; Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net; Chris Reiter at creiter2@bloomberg.net Nancy Moran, Sylvia Wier

Tuesday 25 March 2014

MH370 crashed in suicide mission

Flight MH370 was crashed into the Indian Ocean in an alleged suicide mission, according to unnamed sources quoted by a major British newspaper

"Well-placed sources" investigating the Boeing 777's disappearance believe no malfunction or fire was capable of causing the plane's dramatically-altered flight path or disabling the communications system before it headed towards the Indian Ocean and crashed after a seven-hour silent flight, UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports.
All analysis of the plane's available data suggest it was flown "in a rational way", according to an unnamed official.
"This has been a deliberate act by someone on board who had to have had the detailed knowledge to do what was done," the source told the newspaper.
"Nothing is emerging that points to motive."
The official said suggestions of an on-board fire or systems malfunction "just does not hinge together".

March 25, 2014: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announces that according to new data, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 ended in the Southern Ocean.

"(The investigators) have gone through processes you do to get the plane where it flew to for eight hours. They point to it being flown in a rational way."

Why did MH370 fly to the Indian Ocean?

The Malaysian government is yet to publicly reveal if it supports the suicide mission theory following the announcement this morning by the country's prime minister that investigators had concluded beyond a doubt that "flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean".
Until such public announcement is made there will continue to be broad speculation about what led to the passenger jet's demise.
It has been suspected, especially in the early days of the investigation, that the plane may have crashed after an explosion on board, possibly the result of a bomb.
If such an explosion was not powerful enough to bring down the plane, it has been speculated that it may have caused a sudden decompression that rendered everyone on board unconscious and resulted in the aircraft being flown on autopilot until it ran out of fuel.

March 25, 2014: Distraught families and loved ones of those on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 learn the fate of the missing jet.

CNN reports that a "viable explanation" is a mechanical malfunction. Boeing 777 pilot Les Abend, who has 29 years of flying experience, says that while his views are speculative he believes based on the known evidence that a mechanical concern would be most likely and the plane might indeed have flown on autopilot in its final hours.
Similarly, the Mail Online reports that the news that MH370 definitely crashed in the southern Indian Ocean may prove Canadian pilot Chris Goodfellow's theory that the crew on board had been overcome by smoke.
The theory by the veteran pilot, which has been widely discussed online, predicts the plane was in trouble and simply heading for the nearest safe airport when it turned off course.
Mr Goodfellow's proposed series of events would hail the plane's captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah a hero trying to save the doomed flight.

However, theories about on-board problems have not completely explained why no mayday call was made, although there is suggestion the primary radios may have been destroyed by fire.
According to the timeline of events, the plane's communications systems were turned off after it dramatically changed its course away from its destination of Beijing.
That evidence has resulted in substantial investigations into the possibility it had been hijacked or used for a terrorist attack.
The backgrounds of the plane's pilot and co-pilot have been extensively investigated by authorities, as evidence grew that the plane was being operated by professionals and there had been no sign someone else had taken over its controls.

ninemsn staff

10:19am March 25, 2014

Saturday 22 March 2014

Malaysia Airlines flight missing: Search underway as six Australian passengers named

Updated Sun 9 Mar 2014, 3:23pm AEDT

Gallery: Malaysia Airlines plane missing

Photo: Queenslanders Catherine and Robert Lawton, pictured on holidays. (Facebook)

Map: Malaysia

The six Australian passengers among 239 people on board a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur have been named.

The airline released a passenger list that includes the names of two couples from Queensland and a couple from New South Wales.
The manifest names them as Robert and Catherine Lawton, Rodney and Mary Burrows and Gu Naijun and Li Yuan.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says it has been in contact with their families, and officials are in "constant and urgent contact" with Malaysia Airlines.
No distress signals were received from the aircraft before its disappearance over the South China Sea, and DFAT says it "fears the worst" for those onboard.

Passengers on flight MH370

Nationality	Total
China/Taiwan	153 (1 infant)
Malaysia	38
Indonesia	7
Australia	6
India	5
France	4
USA	3 (1 infant)
New Zealand	2
Ukraine	2
Canada	2
Russia	1
Netherlands	1
Italy	1 (stolen passport)
Austria	1 (stolen passport)

A full-scale international search and rescue operation is underway to find the aircraft with attention zoning in on waters between southern Vietnam and Malaysia.
Malaysia Airlines says it now fears the worst and is now working with a US company that specialises in disaster recovery.
There are reports oil slicks have been found in the ocean off Vietnam in what could be the first sign of the plane's whereabouts.
Vietnam says its rescue planes have spotted two slicks, about 15 kilometres long, and a column of smoke off its coastline, but it is not clear if they are connected to the missing plane.
Flight MH370 lost contact with air traffic controllers at 2:40am local time on Saturday (5:40am AEDT), just over two hours into what should have been a six-hour journey.
There were no reports of bad weather and no signs as to why the Boeing 777-200ER would have vanished from radar screens.
Malaysia has deployed 15 air force aircraft, six navy ships and three coast guard vessels.
"The search and rescue operations will continue as long as necessary," Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak told reporters.
China and the Philippines have also sent ships to the region to help, while the United States, the Philippines and Singapore dispatched military planes.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott says Australia is looking at ways to help with the search and recovery operations.
"This is obviously a horrible, horrible business, and our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers and their families on that ill-fated aircraft, particularly to the six Australian passengers and families that are now confirmed to be on board," he said.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says it is a sad time for the families.
"This is a terrible time for those families, a terrible time of distress and grieving. I think the Australian nation's thoughts go out to families of those Australians and New Zealanders who are on this plane and indeed the families of everyone," he said.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman says his thoughts are with the families of the four Queenslanders who were on board the flight.
"It's looking pretty grim, but let's hold out hope for some sort of miracle," he said.
"Our hearts and thoughts are with the families of all nationalities, but of course our Queensland friends."
There are reports that a 39-year-old Perth-based New Zealand man was also on the flight.
Paul Weeks was reportedly on his way to Mongolia for his first shift as a fly-in fly-out worker in Mongolia.

Stolen passports used on flight

There were no indications of sabotage nor claims of a terrorist attack.
But the passenger manifest issued by the airline included the names of two Europeans - Austrian Christian Kozel and Italian Luigi Maraldi - who, according to their foreign ministries, were not in fact on the plane.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Vienna said: "Our embassy got the information that there was an Austrian on board. That was the passenger list from Malaysia Airlines. Our system came back with a note that this is a stolen passport."
Austrian police found the man safe at home.
The passport was stolen two years ago while he was travelling in Thailand, the spokesman said.
The foreign ministry in Rome said no Italian was on the plane either, despite the inclusion of Mr Maraldi's name on the list.
His mother, Renata Lucchi, told Reuters his passport was lost, presumed stolen, in Thailand in 2013.
The director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority says the possibility that stolen passports were used is being investigated.
A crash, if confirmed, would be the second fatal accident involving a Boeing 777 in less than a year.
An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777-200ER crash-landed in San Francisco in July 2013, killing three passengers and injuring more than 180.
Boeing says it is monitoring the situation but has no further comment.
Paul Hayes, director of safety at Flightglobal Ascend aviation consultancy, says the flight would normally have been at a routine stage, having apparently reached its initial cruise altitude of 35,000 feet.
"Such a sudden disappearance would suggest either that something is happening so quickly that there is no opportunity to put out a mayday, in which case a deliberate act is one possibility to consider, or that the crew is busy coping with what whatever has taken place," he said.
The operations and safety editor of Flightglobal publications, David Learmount, says sabotage is a possibility but says there are similarities with the crash of an Air France Airbus in the Atlantic five years ago, which was attributed to pilot error.
"In both cases the pilots didn't make a radio call. They didn't have time to or they were too distracted by what was going on," he said.
"They were both latest generation aeroplanes. Today's aeroplanes are incredibly reliable and you do not get some sudden structural failure, it just doesn't happen."

Map: Malaysia Airlines missing flight MH370

Thursday 20 March 2014

Search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has its best new lead

Search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

MH370 New lead.

Military aircraft and merchant ships are racing to a position in the southern Indian Ocean about 2500 kilometres southwest of Perth, where a satellite identified two floating objects.
One measured about 24 metres, while the other was smaller.

Australian authorities say they are possible remnants of the Boeing 777 that went missing on a March 8 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, carrying 239 people, including six Australians and two New Zealanders. But John Young of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) was cautious not to raise hopes, saying the satellite imagery shows "a sort of blob" with no features to distinguish it as aircraft fragments.

"It's probably the best lead we have right now, but we have to get there, find them, see them, assess them to know whether it's really meaningful or not," the emergency response division manager said.

March 20, 2014: Authorities leading the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 have diverted the HMAS Success to a search area in the Indian Ocean, where satellite reconnaissance found ‘objects’ that may be debris related to the missing Boeing 777.

Water in the area is thousands of metres deep and searchers are battling poor visibility, with last light due about midnight (AEDT) on Thursday.

"Every lead is a hope," Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. "This time I just hope that it is a positive development."

Mr Hussein said the Australian finding will not detract from a widespread international search, which continues combing areas identified by experts as being possible locations for the jet, based on MH370's fuel range.

Altogether there are 18 ships, 29 aircraft and six ship-borne helicopters working on the operation.
"Until we are certain we have found MH370, search and rescue operations will continue," he said.

March 20, 2014: Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced in Parliament that two possible objects relating to the search of the missing aircraft have been identified from satellite imagery.

Australia has been co-ordinating the search operation in the southern Indian Ocean.

If the debris belongs to the aircraft, it indicates MH370 ended up thousands of kilometres from its planned destination, raising further questions about why it changed course.
But the priority for AMSA remains identifying the bobbing objects.

It was not uncommon to find floating debris, including shipping containers that had been washed overboard, Mr Young said.

"On this particular occasion, the size and the fact that there are a number located in the sea at the same area really makes it worth looking at."

Authorities should know something definite about the objects within "two or three days", Australian Defence Minister David Johnston says.

March 20, 2014: A distraught family member of an MH370 passenger was so overcome with grief at the press conference of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight that she had to be carried out of the room.

Australia's defence forces were doing everything they could in one of the most remote locations in the world, Senator Johnston told AAP.

An RAAF C-130 Hercules has dropped marker buoys at the location identified by satellite, and military aircraft from Australia, New Zealand and the United States are combing the area.

A merchant ship was also headed to the area.
"(The objects) will be difficult to find. They might not be associated with the aircraft and we have plenty of experience of that in other searches," Mr Young said.

The search area is a long way from the Australian mainland and once aircraft reach the location, they have about only two hours of fuel before having to return to base.

Asked about his message to the family and friends of people on board flight MH370, Mr Young said Australia would continue to search until it found something.

"AMSA is doing its level best to find anyone who may have survived," he said.

Australia is sharing its information with 25 other countries involved in the search operation, and Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed on Thursday he had spoken to his Malaysian counterpart about the latest update.

Unfavourable weather is limiting visibility, which authorities say might hinder both air and satellite search efforts.

Friday 14 March 2014

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Tuesday 11 March 2014

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370:

Authorities deny wreckage found from missing jetliner

Updated Mon 10 Mar 2014, 5:35pm AEDT

Malaysian Maritime Enforcement officer looks through binoculars while flying over waters searching for missing plane

Photo: Malaysian Maritime Enforcement personnel look through binoculars during search and rescue operations for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 (AFP: Malaysian Maritime Enforcement)

Related Story: Malaysia looking at possible terrorist link to missing flight MH370

Related Story: Australians on missing flight to Beijing named as oil slick spotted at sea

Related Story: Six Australians onboard missing Malaysia Airlines plane

Map: Malaysia

Malaysian authorities say they "remain puzzled" about the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight, saying there has been no confirmation that debris has been found.

Six Australian passengers were among the 239 people on board flight MH370 when it disappeared en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.
Earlier today there were reports that possible debris from the plane had been found in the sea off Vietnam's south coast.
But today Malaysia's chief investigator said Vietnamese authorities had not confirmed sighting any wreckage, and said authorities "remained puzzled" about the disappearance.
"We are looking at every possible aspect of what could have happened," said Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.
"We have to find the aircraft; we are intensifying our efforts to locate the aircraft.
"We understand you want answers from us, you want details ... we are equally eager as you are to find details and parts of the aircraft.

Flight MH370: What we know

A rundown of what's known about Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and its mysterious disappearance.

"Every hour, every second we are looking at every inch of the sea."

Mr Azharuddin said hijacking has not been ruled out and investigators are looking at all possibilities.

The plane last had contact with air traffic controllers 120 nautical miles off the east coast of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu on Saturday.
No distress signals were received from the Boeing 777-200ER before its disappearance.
Australian surveillance planes are joining the search and this morning Vietnamese authorities dispatched aircraft at first light to investigate objects found in the water about 80 kilometres to the south-west of Tho Chu Island in the south of the country.
Debris which was spotted yesterday was not found to be related to the missing aircraft.
Two large oil slicks, which authorities suspect were caused by jet fuel, were detected late on Saturday further south off the island chain.
Malaysian authorities say the oil is being tested to establish where it has come from.
Royal Malaysian Air Force chief Rodzali Daud says radar data shows that the aircraft may have turned back from its scheduled route to Beijing.

"We looked back at the recording and there is an indication, a possible indication, that the aircraft made a turn-back and we are trying to make sense of this," he said.
"It is, in some part, corroborated by civil radar.
"But we are still looking for areas from our international agencies."

Video: Possible debris found in search for missing jet (ABC News)

Prime Minister Tony Abbott spoke with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak yesterday afternoon to convey his condolences and committed to send two RAAF P-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft to help with the search for the missing plane.
"The P-3C Orion is a long-range maritime surveillance aircraft ideally suited to this task," Mr Abbott said.
"On behalf of Australia, I again offer my deepest sympathies to the families of the passengers and crew on board the Malaysia Airlines flight."
The first of those planes left Darwin last night, followed by the second this morning.
The first aircraft is due to commence operations today and both will operate for as long as the Malaysian government wants them to.

NZ man emailed 'missing you already' before boarding flight

Video: Danica Weeks received an email from her husband before he boarded. (ABC News)

The wife of a Perth-based New Zealand father of two who was on board the missing flight says she is trying to stay strong for her children.
Paul Weeks, 38, was travelling to Mongolia to start a fly-in fly-out job with a mining contractor.
Mr Weeks, who moved to Perth with his family two years ago, last contacted them from the airport lounge before the flight.
His wife Danica says she is focusing on her children.

Key points: Boeing 777-200ER

Malaysia Airlines has 15 Boeing 777-200ERs in its fleet, with an average age of 14.2 years.
The plane involved was powered by two Rolls Royce Trent 800 engines
The Boeing 777 is the plane maker's most popular wide-body aircraft
The Boeing 777-200ER has a range of 12,432 kilometres and a cruising speed of 1,029 kilometres per hour
The 777 has one of the best safety records of any commercial aircraft in service
View a seating map of the Boeing 777-200ER

Source: Reuters

"I've got two - an 11-month-old and a three-and-a-half-year-old - who, at three-and-a-half, I mean he's an intelligent little boy, too, and I've just got to be strong for him because ... if the worst-case scenario is confirmed, I have to be his strength."
She says Mr Weeks was looking forward to starting his "dream job".
"He was emailing me when he was in the lounge before he got on the flight," she said.
"He emailed me and the title was 'missing you already' and in it he wrote, you know, 'you and the boys are my world'."
The family of missing Queensland couple Robert and Catherine Lawton has issued a statement thanking the public for their well wishes and prayers.
The couple's daughters and extended family say they are trying to remain positive while also bracing for the worst.
They say their hearts go out to all those on board the missing plane.
Another Queensland couple, Rodney and Mary Burrows, and New South Wales couple Gu Naijun and Li Yuan were also on board the flight.
Mrs Burrows had been a civilian employee with the Queensland Police Service for 16 years.
Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said he had offered support to the family.
"We don't know yet what's happened, and obviously we're hoping against all hope that they might be found alive, but as the time goes on, obviously, the potential tragedy of what's occurred is not lost on the organisation," he said.
In Malaysia, the relatives of the passengers and crew spend their hours at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur's international airport where they wait for news.

Gallery: Malaysia Airlines plane missing

Investigations launched into two stolen passports

Malaysian authorities have meanwhile launched a review of the country's airport security screening processes after it was revealed two of the passengers on the aircraft were travelling on stolen passports.
Authorities have now corrected earlier reports that four passengers on the flight are being investigated, saying they are only interested in the two men who boarded the plane using those passports.
They have collected CCTV footage showing the two potential suspects arriving and boarding the plane.

Timeline: worst air disasters

Use our interactive timeline to look back at how MH370 compares with other crashes.

The New York Times has reported that, according to electronic booking records, both men bought their one-way tickets for the flight from the same travel agency in a shopping mall in Thailand.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop says passport control has been a global issue for some time.
"There may be no connection at all, but nevertheless it is a worrying development," she said.
"I note that a number of overseas authorities are involved in looking at this issue as to how many passengers were travelling on false or questionable passports."
Mr Abbott says that it is not uncommon for passports to be stolen in certain countries.
"I'm just not going to speculate on what the significance of that might be," he said.
According to Interpol reports, last year across the globe passengers boarded planes more than a billion times without having their passports screened against its Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database.
Independent aviation analyst Chris Yates says screening is a simple process.
"It's a database that can be interrogated within a minute ... and the results produced on screen to whomever happens to be dealing with the passengers in front of them," he said.

Video: Some information suggests something 'untoward' has occurred. (ABC News)

"It should be a basic standard for security."
Transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday he had activated counterterrorism units and contacted international intelligence agencies, including the FBI.
International police agency Interpol said at least two passports recorded as lost or stolen in its database were used by passengers on board and it was "examining additional suspect passports".
Interpol said no checks of its database had been made by any country on an Austrian and an Italian passport between the time that they were stolen and the departure of the flight.
"Whilst it is too soon to speculate about any connection between these stolen passports and the missing plane, it is clearly of great concern that any passenger was able to board an international flight using a stolen passport listed in Interpol's databases," Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said in a statement.
The legitimate owners of the two passports - Christian Kozel, an Austrian, and Luigi Maraldi of Italy - have said their documents were stolen in Thailand over the past two years, prompting Thai police to investigate a "passport ring".
Officials are investigating why two men using the stolen passports booked flights onward to Europe, which means they did not need Chinese visas and avoided the additional scrutiny that comes from visa application.

Map: Malaysia Airlines missing flight MH370

ABC/wires

Topics: air-and-space, accidents, air-transport, business-economics-and-finance, malaysia, vietnam, asia, nsw, qld, australia, wa

First posted Mon 10 Mar 2014, 2:41am AEDT