Malaysia Airlines 'loses contact with plane'

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Malaysia moves to include a land search over Subang...

The missing Malaysia Airlines plane may have tried to head for another airport, the company said on Tuesday, with the search expanding to land as it entered a fourth day.

The airline said authorities were searching the Malaysian peninsula, while the Vietnamese military said its units were hunting for any sign that the aircraft might have crashed into remote mountains or uninhabited jungle areas.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Malaysia Airlines said: “The authorities are looking at a possibility of an attempt made by MH370 to turn back to Subang. All angles are being looked at. We are not ruling out any possibilities.”

That was presumably a reference to Malaysia’s Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah airport, also known as Subang airport. It lies not far to the north-west of Kuala Lumpur international airport, where the plane took off.

Malaysia’s air force chief had previously said military radar suggested the aircraft might have made a U-turn. Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the Vietnamese army, told the Associated Press that authorities on land had been ordered to search for the plane, with military units also searching near the border with Laos and Cambodia.

“So far we have found no signs … so we must widen our search on land,” he said.

China deploys satellites as search area expands for missing Malaysian jet
Published March 11, 2014FoxNews.com


The search area for a missing jetliner expanded on Tuesday with Malaysian Airlines saying the western coast of the country is now the focus of the hunt, as China deployed 10 satellites to help in the massive multinational effort to find the Boeing 777.

The Boeing 777 had 239 people on board when it vanished off radar screens early Saturday morning en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, triggering a massive international search effort.

Meanwhile, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Daily newspaper said the country had deployed 10 satellites that will use high-resolution earth imaging capabilities and other technology to "support and assist in the search and rescue operations for the Malaysian Airlines aircraft."

The Chinese satellites will also help in weather monitoring, communication and search operations in the area where the plane disappeared, Reuters quoted the newspaper as saying.

The announcements reflect the difficulty authorities are having in finding the plane. China has urged Malaysia to speed up the search for the plane. About two-thirds of passengers and 12 crew aboard the plane were Chinese, according to Reuters.

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Fake passport holders on missing Malaysia Airlines flight 'were Iranian immigrants heading for Europe'

The two passengers travelling on stolen passports on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are reportedly Iranian nationals.

An Iranian friend of one of the men told BBC Persia he hosted the pair in Kuala Lumpur after they arrived from Tehran in the days preceding their flight to Beijing.

The source, who claimed he knew one of the men from his school days in Iran, said the duo had bought the fake passports because they wanted to migrate to Europe.

They were travelling on passports belonging to Christian Kozel, an 30-year-old Austrian, and Luigi Maraldi, a 37-year-old Italian.

They had bought the passports in Kuala Lumpur as well as tickets to Amsterdam, via Beijing.

The correspondent told BBC Persia that one of the Iranians was heading for Frankfurt, Germany, where his mother lives, while the other wanted to travel to Denmark.

BBC Persia's UN correspondent Bahman Kalbasi told The Telegraph that the two Iranians were "looking for a place to settle".

The revelation comes after it emerged a mystery Iranian called 'Mr Ali' bought tickets for the pair.

The US FBI are now trying to track him down.

Missing Malaysia Airlines flight: Fake passport holders on board lost jet 'were Iranian immigrants heading for Europe' - Mirror Online
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