Malaysia seeks help of 25 countries to find missing jet. Kuala Lumpur, March 16 (IANS) The Malaysian government has asked as many as 25 countries for assistance and received unprecedented positive response, as the search for the missing jetliner continues to demand immense resources, officials said here Sunday. As search operations entered the ninth day and Malaysian officials uncovered new data on the possible flight path of the aircraft that point to two new corridors, the demand for satellite information, radar playback, aircraft and vessels has become greater, Xinhua cited Malaysias Transportation Minister Hishamuddin Hussein as telling reporters. The new search areas announced Saturday encompass a northern corridor stretching approximately from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand as well as a southern one from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean. We are now looking at large tracts of land crossing 11 countries as well as deep and remote oceans. The number of countries involved in the search and rescue operations has increased from 14 to 25, which brings new challenges of coordination and diplomacy to the effort, he said. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with 239 passengers and crew on board vanished mysteriously about an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur early morning March 8. The Boeing 777-200ER was initially presumed to have crashed off the Vietnamese coast in the South China Sea. The plane took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 a.m. March 8 and was due to land in Beijing at 6.30 a.m. the same day. The 227 passengers on the flight included five Indians, 154 Chinese and 38 Malaysians.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 17:18:42 +0000