The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been halted by rough weather in the southern Indian Ocean, where investigators now say they are certain the Boeing 777 with 239 people on board went down.
Malaysian officials said yesterday that satellite data examined by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch and Inmarsat had led them to determine that the jetliner flew along a southern arc before its last transmission was received. There would have been nowhere for the airplane to land when it’s fuel would have run out, leading investigators to conclude that the flight ended in the ocean.
Inmarsat engineers were able to pinpoint the jet’s location after it turned off course on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing by analyzing periodic satellite pings it sent out. Using calculations based on Doppler compression, they determined the jet was flying away from the Inmarsat communications satellite — meaning it must have been headed south and not north along another suspected corridor. The calculations, which had never been tried before, were peer reviewed by space agency experts and Boeing, officials said.
The search for Flight 370 debris will resume as soon as poor weather clears.
Get exclusive online content like this delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for our free enewsletter.
We welcome your comments on flyingmag.com. In order to maintain a respectful environment, we ask that all comments be on-topic, respectful and spam-free. All comments made here are public and may be republished by Flying.
