Sepang, March 22-With time running out fast to locate the ill-fated flight MH370′s black box, Malaysian authorities are unfazed saying that they will use other advanced technologies to locate the data collection mechanism.
The jetliner’s black box would run out of power in 16 days and it will not be beaming any form of signal after that.
The search for the missing Boeing 777-200ER entered its 13th day today without any glimmer of hope of finding the plane, which is now said to be in the south of the Indian Ocean, some 2,500km from the Australian city of Perth.
Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, speaking at his daily press briefing on the missing plane, has assured that the search and rescue mission will still go on despite not having concrete information of the missing aircraft and its black box.
“I am aware that the (black box) signal can only last for 30 days but I can assure you that we are still optimist to find the jetliner.”
“The rescue and search teams will still conduct their daily mission as usual. We have to remember that it took two years for the French to find the missing Air France 447.”
“There are still other technologies to detect the black box after 30 days,” he said.
Passengers cleared
When asked if all passengers of the runaway plane had been cleared from terrorism activities, Hishammuddin, who is also Defence Minister, reiterated that intelligence agencies around the world have cleared all on board.
“The Ukraine police have confirmed that the background checks on the Ukrainian passenger have come back clear,” he said.
He however said Malaysia had asked these agencies to re-look at the passengers list for a second screening.
Hishammuddin added that the second verification notice will be explained by the Inspector General of Police soon.
“I can confirm to you that there was nothing unusual from the manifest. I have verified it with various intelligence agencies.”
“We have requested them to re-look at it. We are waiting for our international parties to verify and I believe the IGP can confirm it in another session,” he said.
The Boeing 777-200ER jetliner went missing an hour into its flight form the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing, China.
It was carrying 239 passengers and crew. The runaway plane was last spotted by civilian radar heading towards Vietnam over the South China Sea. Its transponders which sends signal to air traffic control on the plane’s location was switched from inside the jetliner off soon after last contact was made.
The plane was spotted by the military radar an hour after that heading towards the Andaman Sea, on the western side of peninsula Malaysia. Some 27 nations have joined in the search for the missing plane.
Malaysian authorities have said the plane flew in either one of the two routes. One was towards the Indian Ocean while the other was across continental Asia, from northern Thailand to Kazakhstan.
-FreeMalaysiaToday
