Missing Malaysia Airlines plane sent signals to satellite for hours 14/3/2014 WASHINGTON: A Malaysia Airlines plane was sending signals to a satellite for four hours after the aircraft went missing, an indication that it was still flying, said a US official briefed on the search for the plane. The Boeing 777-200 wasnt transmitting data to the satellite, but was instead sending out a signal to establish contact, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to discuss the situation by name. Boeing offers a satellite service that can receive a stream of data during flight on how the aircraft is functioning. Malaysia Airlines didnt subscribe to that service, but the plane still had the capability of connecting with the satellite and was automatically sending pings, the official said. The continuing pings led searchers to believe the plane could have flown more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) beyond its last confirmed sighting on radar, the official said. The plane had enough fuel to fly about four more hours, he said. Messages involving a different data service also were received from the airliner for a short time after the planes transponder, a device used to identify the plane to radar, went silent, the official said. The plane was initially thought to have gone down over the South China Sea. According to defense officials, the USS Kidd, a destroyer, is heading into the Indian Ocean. A US surveillance plane is in the Strait of Malacca region and another US surveillance plane is now en route to Malaysia, defense officials said.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 10:32:54 +0000
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