In one of the most baffling mysteries in recent aviation history, a massive search operation for the

A Malaysia Airlines plane was sending signals to a satellite for four hours after the aircraft went missing, an indication that it was still flying, said a US official briefed on the search for the plane.
The Boeing 777-200 wasn't transmitting data to the satellite, but was instead sending out a signal to establish residence inn contact, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the situation by name.
Boeing offers a satellite service that can receive a stream of data during flight on how the aircraft is functioning and relay the information to the plane's home base. The idea is to provide information on whether maintenance work or repairs are needed before the plane lands so mechanics and parts can be ready, saving time and money.
It's like when your cellphone is off but it still sends out a little 'I'm here' message to the cellphone network, the official said. That's how sometimes they can triangulate your position even though you're not calling because the phone every so often sends out a little bleep. That's sort of what this thing was doing.
The continuing pings led searchers to believe the plane could have flown hundreds of miles or more beyond its last confirmed sighting on radar, the official said. The plane had enough fuel to fly about four more hours, residence inn he said.
The plane was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when radar contact was lost. Messages involving a different, more rudimentary data service residence inn also were received residence inn from the airliner for a short time after the plane's transponder a device used to identify the plane to radar went silent, the official said.
The plane was initially thought to have gone down over the South China Sea. According to defense officials, the USS Kidd, a destroyer, is heading into the Indian Ocean. A US surveillance plane is in the Strait of Malacca region and another U.S. surveillance plane is now en route to Malaysia, defense officials said.
Planes residence inn searching an area where Chinese satellites spotted possible debris from a missing Malaysian passenger jet have found no sign of wreckage, officials said Thursday, dimming hopes of a breakthrough in the mystery
As a mark of respect to the passengers and crew of MH370 on March 8, 2014, the MH370 and MH371 flight codes will be retired residence inn from the Malaysia Airlines Kuala Lumpur- Beijing-Kuala Lumpur route, the airline noted in a statement.
With effect from March 14, 2014, the new flight number to replace residence inn MH370 and MH371 will be: MH 318 (Kuala Lumpur Beijing); MH 319 (Beijing - Kuala Lumpur), it said noting that there will be no changes to the frequency of the services and that it will continue to operate double daily services to Beijing.
China said late Wednesday its satellites had detected three large floating objects in a suspected crash site near where the Malaysia Airlines plane, which disappeared Saturday on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, lost contact.
residence inn Reeling from a storm of criticism about its handling of the crisis, Malaysia also sent an aircraft to investigate the reported sighting in the South China Sea, pledging to pursue all concrete clues -- but that it had also found nothing as of Thursday afternoon.
The search for the plane now encompasses both sides of peninsular residence inn Malaysia, over an area of nearly residence inn 27,000 nautical residence inn miles (more than 90,000 square kilometres) -- roughly the size of Portugal -- and involves the navies and air forces of multiple nations.
The objects detected by the Chinese satellite were seen roughly 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of the location of the plane's last reported residence inn contact roughly mid-way between the coasts of Malaysia and Vietnam.
But Vietnam Civil Aviation Authority deputy director residence inn Dinh Viet Thang told AFP that two aircraft sent to inspect areas near where the suspicious objects were detected by China have returned and we found nothing so far .
The China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application said in a statement residence inn on its website earlier this week that it had deployed eight land observation satellites to scour the suspected crash area.
Malaysia residence inn Airlines has said it was shocked over allegations that First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, along with a fellow pilot, violated airline rules in 2011 by allowing two young South African women into their cockpit during a flight.
It also emerged that months before the Malaysia Airlines jet vanished, US regulators had warned of a cracking and corrosion problem on Boeing 777s that could lead to a drastic drop in cabin pressure and possible mid-air break-up.
This map shows the two areas where the search for flight MH370 was focused in green. The blue X marks the spot where the large debris has been spotted by Chinese satellites. The black circle is where the New Zealand oil worker witnessed a plane burning in the sky.
Malaysian residence inn air force chief General Rodzali Daud attempted to explain why the search zone had been expanded, telling a press conference residence inn that military radar detected an unidentified object early Saturday north of the Malacca Strait off Malaysia's west coast.
Analysts said there were burning residence inn questions over what information -- if any -- Malaysia has gleaned from both military and civilian radar, and the plane's transponders, and over discounted reports it was later detected residence inn near Indonesia.
There are so many information sources that do not appear to have been used effectively in this case. As a result, the families of the missing passengers and crew are being kept in the dark, said David Learmount, residence inn operations and safety editor at industry magazine Flightglobal.
Malaysia's ambassador to China, Iskandar Sarudin, said one of the pilots said alright, good night as the flight switched from Malaysian residence inn to Vietnamese airspace, according to Singapore's Straits Times newspaper.
The last radio transmission from the cockpit of missing Malaysia residence inn Airlines flight 370 was Alright, good night , Kuala Lumpur's ambassador to Beijing reportedly said Wednesday during a meeting with Chinese relatives.
As confusion deepens over the search area and whether Malaysian military radar tracked the aircraft, residence inn he said now is not the time to reveal what information the military had supplied civilian authorities.
He also defended the crew, after an Australian television report that co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, violated airline rules in 2011 by allowing two young South African women into their cockpit during a flight. (AFP)
Meanwhile, Malaysia has sought India's help to locate a missing jetliner, India's foreign ministry said on Wednesday, as the search expanded to cover an area stretching from China to the Andaman Sea.
Malaysia and India are in contact residence inn on this since yesterday and contact points are being discussed. These contact points residence inn will ascertain what assistance is required and what India can offer, a spokesman at the ministry said.
Among those aboard were First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, who along with a fellow pilot violated residence inn airline rules in 2011 by allowing two young South African women into their cockpit during a flight, one of the women told Sydney-based Nine Network.
The report included photos of the women in the cockpit, with one appearing to show them posing with a man resembling Fariq. residence inn Passengers have been prohibited from entering the cockpit during a flight after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
About 600,000 people have scanned satellite images from DigitalGlobe Inc. for clues to the fate of a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner, the company said Tuesday. Users of the website can tag images if they see wreckage, life rafts, oil slicks or other evidence.
- The international search for a missing Malaysian airliner has been expanded residence inn into the Andaman Sea, hundreds of kilometres (miles) to the northwest of the original search residence inn radius, an official said Wednesday.
- China's air force will add two planes to the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner, the country's civil aviation chief said on Wednesday, adding that search and rescue efforts would be broadened to include land areas.
Malaysia's military believes a jetliner missing for almost four days turned and flew hundreds of kilometres to the west after it last made contact with civilian air traffic control off the country's east coast, a senior officer told Reuters on Tuesday.
In one of the most baffling mysteries in recent aviation history, a massive search operation for the Malaysia Airlines (MASM.KL) Boeing 777-200ER has so far found no trace of the aircraft or the 239 passengers and crew.
That would appear to rule out sudden catastrophic mechanical failure, as it would mean the plane flew around 500 km (350 miles) at least after its last contact with air traffic control, although its transponder and other tracking systems were off.
At the time it lost contact with civilian air traffic control, the plane was roughly midway between Malaysia's east coast town of Kota Bharu and the southern tip of Vietnam, flying at 35,000 ft (10,670 metres).
Malaysia's Berita Harian newspaper quoted air force chief Rodzali Daud as saying the plane was last detected at 2.40 a.m. by military residence inn radar near the island of Pulau Perak at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca. It was flying about 1,000 metres lower than its previous residence inn altitude, he was quoted as saying.
The effect of turning off the transponder residence inn is to make the aircraft inert to secondary radar, so civil controllers cannot identify it. Secondary radar interrogates the transponder and gets information about the plane's identity, speed and height.
Police had earlier said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew on the plane had personal or psychological problems that might explain its disappearance, along with the possibility of a hijack, sabotage or mechanical failure.
There was no distress signal or radio contact indicating a problem and, in the absence of any wreckage or flight data, police have been left trawling through passenger and crew lists for potential leads.
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