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| Officials ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ That Missing Malaysian Jet Will Be Found | Officials ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ That Missing Malaysian Jet Will Be Found |
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| SYDNEY, Australia — Officials expressed new optimism on Thursday that data from an attempt to contact the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared in the Indian Ocean could lead to the plane’s discovery. | SYDNEY, Australia — Officials expressed new optimism on Thursday that data from an attempt to contact the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared in the Indian Ocean could lead to the plane’s discovery. |
| “All of the countries involved remain cautiously optimistic that we will find the missing aircraft,” Australia’s deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, said at a news conference in Canberra, the Australian capital, with the Malaysian transportation minister, Liow Tiong Lai, and China’s vice minister for transport, He Jianzhong. | “All of the countries involved remain cautiously optimistic that we will find the missing aircraft,” Australia’s deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, said at a news conference in Canberra, the Australian capital, with the Malaysian transportation minister, Liow Tiong Lai, and China’s vice minister for transport, He Jianzhong. |
| Mr. Truss said teams continued to refine the search area almost six months after the plane vanished, noting that data from a failed attempt to contact the plane with a satellite phone had provided some new information. | Mr. Truss said teams continued to refine the search area almost six months after the plane vanished, noting that data from a failed attempt to contact the plane with a satellite phone had provided some new information. |
| “After MH370 disappeared from the radar, Malaysia Airlines ground staff sought to make contact with the aircraft using a satellite phone,” Mr. Truss said. “That was unsuccessful. But the detailed research that is being done now has been able to identify or trace that phone call and help to position the aircraft and the direction it was traveling. That has suggested to us that the aircraft may have turned south a little earlier than we had previously expected.” | “After MH370 disappeared from the radar, Malaysia Airlines ground staff sought to make contact with the aircraft using a satellite phone,” Mr. Truss said. “That was unsuccessful. But the detailed research that is being done now has been able to identify or trace that phone call and help to position the aircraft and the direction it was traveling. That has suggested to us that the aircraft may have turned south a little earlier than we had previously expected.” |
| Flight 370 left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 8 on an overnight flight to Beijing with 239 people on board, but it inexplicably turned off course and headed south. Transmissions from the aircraft, known as electronic “handshakes,” captured by a satellite station in Perth indicated that the flight had come to an end off the west coast of Australia, somewhere on a long arc over the Indian Ocean. | Flight 370 left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 8 on an overnight flight to Beijing with 239 people on board, but it inexplicably turned off course and headed south. Transmissions from the aircraft, known as electronic “handshakes,” captured by a satellite station in Perth indicated that the flight had come to an end off the west coast of Australia, somewhere on a long arc over the Indian Ocean. |
| But a 52-day air search of the sea surface off Australia’s coast, as well as the use of towed undersea devices able to track “pings” from an aircraft’s so-called black boxes, failed to turn up a single trace of the Boeing 777-200. Officials believe the plane flew south for hours on autopilot, but they do not know why its communications systems were switched off or why it deviated from its flight path. | But a 52-day air search of the sea surface off Australia’s coast, as well as the use of towed undersea devices able to track “pings” from an aircraft’s so-called black boxes, failed to turn up a single trace of the Boeing 777-200. Officials believe the plane flew south for hours on autopilot, but they do not know why its communications systems were switched off or why it deviated from its flight path. |
| Mr. Truss said no conclusions could be reached about what had happened in the plane’s cockpit until the black boxes were retrieved. | Mr. Truss said no conclusions could be reached about what had happened in the plane’s cockpit until the black boxes were retrieved. |
| The search area remains on the arc determined by the last electronic handshake picked up from the plane, but Mr. Truss said the area had been refined slightly in light of the data gleaned from the failed satellite phone call. | The search area remains on the arc determined by the last electronic handshake picked up from the plane, but Mr. Truss said the area had been refined slightly in light of the data gleaned from the failed satellite phone call. |
| Mr. Truss also described the area of the ocean floor where the Australian Transport Safety Bureau will lead a deep-sea search in September. In some places it is more than four miles deep, he said, and it is studded with volcanoes and plateaus that could damage surveying equipment. | Mr. Truss also described the area of the ocean floor where the Australian Transport Safety Bureau will lead a deep-sea search in September. In some places it is more than four miles deep, he said, and it is studded with volcanoes and plateaus that could damage surveying equipment. |
| A bathymetric survey, or mapping of the seafloor, in the search area has covered more than 33,000 square miles and revealed at least two volcanoes, as well as significantly greater depths than had been expected, Mr. Truss said. | A bathymetric survey, or mapping of the seafloor, in the search area has covered more than 33,000 square miles and revealed at least two volcanoes, as well as significantly greater depths than had been expected, Mr. Truss said. |
| Mr. Truss and Mr. Liow, the Malaysian transportation minister, said the cost of the search over the next 12 months, unless the plane is found sooner, would probably be around $49 million. The cost would be divided equally between Malaysia and Australia, with China to provide search vessels and make other contributions. Most of Flight 370’s passengers were Chinese. | |
| Mr. Liow said he hoped to provide families of the missing passengers with more timely and regular updates on the progress of the search. |