The Malaysia Airline flight MH370 vanished March 8 with 239 people en route to China aboard. Twelve days into the search, theories abound but everyone is essentially clueless. Here's an update on the latest developments.
Two objects that might belong to the missing Malaysian Airlines MH370 were spotted by satellite in the waters off the west coast of Australia. Search parties from Australia and the United States are scanning the area as others are on their way to help.
Australian PM Tony Abbot announced the development.
"I would like to inform the House that new and credible information has come to light in relation to the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has received information based on satellite imagery of objects possibly related to the search. Following specialist analysis of this satellite imagery, two possible objects related to the search have been identified," he said.
While the debris might be from the wrekage of the missing plane, experts advise that the information must be treated with a grain of salt until verified. Other materials have been seen before but were not linked to MH370. The search in the Indian Ocean encompasses 117,000 square miles, making it difficult despite the available equipment and personnel.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has stepped in to help Malaysian authorities retrieve cleared data from the flight simulator that belonged to the captain of the missing Flight MH370, officials said on Wednesday.
By restoring the lost data, officials hope they may get information that can help solve the mystery of the missing plane. The simulator, which was found in the home of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, had been cleared of data log on February 3, more than a month before the plane went missing.
"Local and international expertise has been recruited to examine the pilot's flight simulator," Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia's Defense Minister and acting Transport Minister said. "Some data had been deleted from the simulator and forensic work to retrieve this data is ongoing."
Forensic experts want to retrieve the missing data to see if they contain information that can be helpful and relevant to the investigation. FBI experts happen to be capable of retrieving data from computers that have been damaged or erased and their expertise can lead to the recovery of deleted data from the flight simulator.
"The goal is to find any indication that the flight simulator had been used to reproduce flight conditions or circumstances that are now the subject of potential theories," said Weysan Dunn, a retired senior FBI agent.
A U.S. official said that Malaysia has already given the FBI access to the electronic data generated by the missing plane's pilots, including those from the hard drive attached to Captain Zaharie Ahmed Shah's flight simulator and the electronic media used by his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, albeit he stressed there is no guarantee that the analysis of FBI experts would lead to new clues.
FBI's help, however, is hoped to shed light on the mystery of the missing plane as it has extensive experience with airplane crashes. The agency has helped establish that the EgyptAir 990 crash in the 1990's was caused by a suicidal pilot. It has also investigated the cases of the Trans World Airlines Flight 800 and Pan Am Flight 103.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was carrying aboard 239 people when it disappeared on its night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing March 8. Search for the plane and investigation on why and how it went missing are still ongoing.
