Malaysia and Inmarsat Release Data Used to Trace MH370

World Today

MH370 Data ReleasedThis photo illustration shows a journalist looking on the data communication logs from British satellite operator Inmarsat and released by Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) in Kuala Lumpur on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on May 27, 2014. Malaysia’s aviation authority released on May 27 the satellite data used to determine that flight MH370 went down in the southern Indian Ocean following demands from sceptical relatives of those on board. AFP PHOTO / MOHD RASFAN

Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation and British satellite firm Inmarsat on Tuesday (May 27) released the data used to determine the path of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, following mounting calls from passengers’ relatives for greater transparency.

Relatives of passengers on the missing flight said they had received the data report compiled by Inmarsat and Malaysian officials, with some publishing it on their Facebook page.

LINK: MH370 Data Communication Logs

The data communications log comprises 14 pieces of data from seven “handshakes,” or pairs of numbers, between the aircraft and the satellite, Inmarsat said last week. One number is time information, the other is frequency.

The Boeing 777 with 239 passengers and crew on board disappeared on March 8 during a scheduled flight between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, and is believed to have gone down in the Indian Ocean, off Western Australia.

In the hours after the aircraft disappeared, an Inmarsat satellite picked up a handful of pings from it, indicating that the plane continued flying for hours and helping narrow the search to an area of the Indian Ocean.

Officials have said that it could take a year to search the 60,000 sq km (23,000 sq mile) area where the plane is believed to have crashed, and questions about how to proceed and how to split the bill are growing.

The data from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was posted on the official website of Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA).

The DCA said in a press statement that Inmarsat and the DCA had been working for the release of the data communication logs and the technical description of the analysis after the acting transport minister’s earlier instruction.

Report complied with information from Reuters & Xinhua.