Search zone for Flight 370 shifts

World Today

There are fewer answers in another airline tragedy that of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It’s been more than 3 months since the plane disappeared. Now, the search zone is shifting. CCTV’s Frances Kuo has more.


Its been 107 Days since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared and search coordinators are recalculating the priority search zone to an area called the 7th arc. Still roughly 1,900 km off of Australia.
Working off the Inmarsat satellite handshakes or pings with the plane before it disappeared, commanders say its unlikely the plane is more than 37 km to the west or 55 km to the east of the Arc.

Search zone for Flight 370 shifts

There are fewer answers in another airline tragedy that of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It's been more than 3 months since the plane disappeared. Now, the search zone is shifting. CCTV's Frances Kuo has more. Its been 107 Days since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared and search coordinators are recalculating the priority search zone to an area called the 7th arc. Still roughly 1,900 km off of Australia. Working off the Inmarsat satellite handshakes or pings with the plane before it disappeared, commanders say its unlikely the plane is more than 37 km to the west or 55 km to the east of the Arc.

The theory: the plane flew high and fast on auto-pilot, then ran out of fuel and crashed. But Sarah Bajc, the long-time girlfriend of American Philip Wood, is skeptical: “We don’t have proof that it crashed in the water at all. There’s been not a trace– not a tiny, tiny bit of evidence that it’s crashed in the water.”

Captain Zahaire Shah remains one of those at the center of the investigation. U.S. sources say deleted files recovered from Shah’s at-home flight simulator show he’d practiced flying into remote areas of the Indian Ocean, but they point out he’d practiced flying many other routes as well. There didn’t seem to be a repeat pattern.

Nothing in Captain Shah’s final words to air traffic controllers suggested anything was wrong. Now, 3-months later, the best hope may be with those faint satellite handshake pings. Greg Feith, Former Sr. NTSB Investigator says: “The fact is that they’re using new technology and new math to try to use data that was never intended to track the aircraft with definite specificity about its location.” And despite all the technology, the new underwater search zone could still be a whopping 52- thousand square km. Frances Kuo from CCTV News reports.