Investigators: Malaysian airliner may have 'disintegrated mid-flight'
- 9 years ago
Originally published on March 10, 2014
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As anxious people await news of their missing loved ones, sources close to the investigation say they have begun to narrow their focus on the strong possibility that the plane broke-up while cruising at over 30,000 feet.
Reuters reports that speaking on condition of anonymity, a Malaysian official investigating the disappearance of flight MH370 says the team is moving towards the theory that the jetliner disintegrated mid-flight.
Past air disaster experience shows that when a plane hits water at high speed, the breakup of the jet leaves a concentrated field of debris that is generally easy to locate.
However, if a plane disintegrates while still high above the earth, the debris field can be scattered over a very wide area, making it hard to locate the exact site of any possible remains of the jetliner.
As of early Monday (March 10) morning, search teams had yet to make any confirmed discovery of wreckage in seas beneath the plane's flight path, almost 48 hours after flight MH370 took off.
After late-breaking reports the plane may have turned around before disappearing from radar, Thai ships are now searching the western Andaman Sea while Malaysia concentrates on searching in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea.
As of March 9, some 40 planes, 24 ships and various aircraft and vessels from Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam were searching waters where the plane may have gone down. Chinese naval vessels will arrive on site and join the search Monday morning.
CNN reports that those feared lost include a delegation of painters and calligraphers, Buddhist worshipers returning from a religious gathering in Kuala Lumpur, all three generations of a single family, nine seniors and five small children.
The plane was carrying 227 passengers, most of whom were Chinese nationals, with others including people from I
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As anxious people await news of their missing loved ones, sources close to the investigation say they have begun to narrow their focus on the strong possibility that the plane broke-up while cruising at over 30,000 feet.
Reuters reports that speaking on condition of anonymity, a Malaysian official investigating the disappearance of flight MH370 says the team is moving towards the theory that the jetliner disintegrated mid-flight.
Past air disaster experience shows that when a plane hits water at high speed, the breakup of the jet leaves a concentrated field of debris that is generally easy to locate.
However, if a plane disintegrates while still high above the earth, the debris field can be scattered over a very wide area, making it hard to locate the exact site of any possible remains of the jetliner.
As of early Monday (March 10) morning, search teams had yet to make any confirmed discovery of wreckage in seas beneath the plane's flight path, almost 48 hours after flight MH370 took off.
After late-breaking reports the plane may have turned around before disappearing from radar, Thai ships are now searching the western Andaman Sea while Malaysia concentrates on searching in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea.
As of March 9, some 40 planes, 24 ships and various aircraft and vessels from Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam were searching waters where the plane may have gone down. Chinese naval vessels will arrive on site and join the search Monday morning.
CNN reports that those feared lost include a delegation of painters and calligraphers, Buddhist worshipers returning from a religious gathering in Kuala Lumpur, all three generations of a single family, nine seniors and five small children.
The plane was carrying 227 passengers, most of whom were Chinese nationals, with others including people from I