Malaysian Officials Say MH370 “Ended” Over Ocean (Updated)

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The race is now on to find the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 after an analysis of satellite data determined the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 “ended in the southern Indian Ocean,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Monday. Bad weather is hampering the search for the wreckage of the aircraft but the U.S. has sent specialized gear to hunt for the signals that should still be emanating from the devices, which will hold the key to why the aircraft went down. The batteries that supply power to the transmitters will likely only last another week or so. So far, it’s anyone’s guess why the Boeing 777 went dark, did a U-turn and flew seven hours before it’s now presumed to have gone down far from any sort of landing opportunity. The U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch and Inmarsat, the satellite company, used a type of analysis never used before to perform further calculations on the available data and concluded that the airplane flew the southern route, ending in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, andnot along the northern path that was earlier considered to be equally viable. “This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites,” Razak said. “It is therefore with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

Razak said more details will be released at a news conference on Tuesday. Meanwhile, aircraft and ships have continued to search the southern ocean region to investigate various reports of floating debris based on satellite imagery, but so far no debris has been positively identified.The U.S. Pacific Command said on Monday it would move a Towed Pinger Locator System into the region. The system can detect the ping from an aircraft’s data recorders down to a depth of 20,000 feet. “This movement is simply a prudent effort to pre-position equipment and trained personnel closer to the search area, so that if debris is found, we will be able to respond as quickly as possible, since the battery life of the black boxs pinger is limited,” Cmdr. Chris Budde, a Seventh Fleet operations officer, said in an email statement to The New York Times. The pinging is expected to continue for another two weeks or so.

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