Last week, promising satellite images of the Indian Ocean ignited new hope for locating the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 flight, with an area off Australia's west coast thought to be the crash site. However, despite several searches in the area, it appears that the 'credible' satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe has thus far raised false hopes, with the Malaysian government formally announcing that the flight ended in the Indian Ocean despite not finding any wreckage or debris.
Also defending their position is Malaysia Airlines, who broke the news to families via text message after the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak made his announcement. The airline maintains that all families were first phoned prior to the Prime Minister's speech, though has attracted the ire of several parties who believe disseminating the news via text was callous and impersonal.
The text read "Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived. As you will hear in the next hour from Malaysia's Prime Minister, we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean."
In response to the criticism, Malaysia Airlines released a brief statement.
It is with deep sadness that Malaysia Airlines earlier this evening had to confirm to the families of those on board Flight MH370 that it must now be assumed the flight had been lost. As the Prime Minister said, respect for the families is essential at this difficult time. And it is in that spirit that we informed the majority of the families in advance of the Prime Minister's statement in person and by telephone. SMSs were used only as an additional means of communicating with the families. Those families have been at the heart of every action the company has taken since the flight disappeared on 8th March and they will continue to be so. When Malaysia Airlines receives approval from the investigating authorities, arrangements will be made to bring the families to the recovery area and until that time, we will continue to support the ongoing investigation.
The multi-national search is continuing in the assumed crash area, with Australian and American military search planes combing the region, soon joined by a Chinese search party. Hopes of finding the wreckage are diminishing, with the two week anniversary now passed and weather conditions proving too treacherous for a consistent search. "The search area expanded to the southern Indian Ocean region and waters near Australia only in the last few days, at which time the Australian government started combing through imagery of this extremely large area," DigitalGlobe said in a statement. "No conclusions have been reached about the origins of the debris or objects shown in the imagery."
The U.S. Navy Poseidon has also joined the search, though thus far has only found dolphins and a freight ship. "This is a plane that gets very close to the water. Most of the time we were skimming at about 300 feet above the water - you could see a basketball if it were in the water," an ABC reporter said. "Plus they had high-tech radar, sweeping 16 miles on each side of the plane. If there was something there, this plane surely would have spotted it."
The cause of the plane's disappearance is still unknown, though Malaysian officials are looking into all possibilities to determine whether was a planned hijacking, terror plot, or indeed tragic accident.
