The mystery over the missing Malaysian aircraft with 239 people on board continued for the third day even as the multinational search operations to look for the wreckage widened. Thirty-four planes, 40 ships and teams from ten countries are involved in search operations.
“Unfortunately, we have not found anything that appears to be objects from the aircraft, let alone the aircraft itself,” Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, head of Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), said at a Press conference.
Hopes for finding some clue about the missing jet arose when authorities reported traces of two oil slicks and some object floating in the sea in the area where the aircraft went missing. But the reports were denied on Monday. Rahman said the DCA is expanding the area of search operations in the next few days. The focus has also shifted to the Andaman Sea, near Thailand’s border, after radar data indicated the plane may have turned around to head back to Kuala lumpur.
Malaysia had launched a terror probe into the disappearance of the plane. The probe was launched after it emerged that two passengers boarded the flight with stolen passports of an Italian and Austrian person. One of the two suspects, who travelled on the plane on stolen passports has been identified. Rahman said investigators were pursuing “every angle” to explain its disappearance, including hijacking. Counter- terrorism agencies and the FBI are also involved in the probe. Search officials have said no emergency signal had been detected from the aircraft so far. Five passengers holding tickets had failed to board that flight.
The Malaysian official said the authorities were as “puzzled” as others over the disappearance of the plane. For the relatives of passengers and crew members, the wait has been agonising. In Beijing, family members gathered in a conference room at a hotel complex. More than 100 people signed a hand-written petition that demanded “truth” from the airline. They also urged the Chinese Government to help them deal with Malaysian authorities, CNN reported. China adjusted the operations of orbiting satellites to help in the search of the missing flight, the People’s liberation Army (PlA) said.