MH370: Focus falls on plane’s final ‘ping’

Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, speaks about the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, during a news conference at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur on March 25, 2014. Picture: Edgar Su

Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, speaks about the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, during a news conference at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur on March 25, 2014. Picture: Edgar Su

Published Mar 25, 2014

Share

Kuala Lumpur - Satellite data that confirmed a Malaysian jetliner missing for more than two weeks crashed in the Indian Ocean included a final electronic signal that is still being investigated, Malaysia’s acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Tuesday.

“There is evidence of a partial handshake between the aircraft and ground station at 00h19 UTC,” Hishammuddin told a news conference.

“At this time, this transmission is not understood and is subject to further ongoing work.”

Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Sunday that groundbreaking satellite-data analysis by the British company Inmarsat had revealed that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, had crashed thousands of kilometres away in the southern Indian Ocean.

Preliminary analysis of the satellite “pings” had only been able to place the plane's final position in one of two vast arcs stretching from the Caspian Sea to the southern Indian Ocean. - Reuters

Related Topics: