马航失联客机搜救范围扩大至印度洋
It's been seven days since the flight, with 239 people onboard, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. As leads continue to turn up, the international hunt for the plane is expanding.
Another warship arrives in the South China Sea. The Yongxing vessel, with 48 divers and under-water scanning equipment on-board, has joined the massive hunt for the missing jetliner.
As of Thursday, 8 Chinese vessels have been combing more than 50-thousand square kilometres of the Gulf of Thailand, both on the surface and under water. With nothing showing up, the vessels are expanding their search towards the northwest.
A similar search has been conducted in the Strait of Malacca, after Malaysian Air Forces radar suggestes that the flight may have turned in that direction.
"Malaysia thinks there might have been a plane that flew to the Strait of Malacca. Malaysia is responsible for investigation into any possibilities. They have dispatched vessels and helicopters into the region," said Hong Lei, spokesman of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hong Lei says China has appealed to Malaysia to improve information gathering and strengthen coordination between different countries so that search efforts can be more effective and accurately targeted. There has been a constant inflow of leads, some of them contradictory.
"There’s too much information coming by. Leads from some parties are subsequently denied by others. This has posed great challenge in allocating our search resources," said Duan Zhaoxian, commander of special group in search of MH370.
Adding to the latest twist is the report that the airplane might have flown on for hours after it lost contact with civilian radar. The hunt now appears to be pushing through to the Indian Ocean.
"we are pushing into the Indian Ocean," said Hishamuddin Hussein, Malaysian acting transport minister.
With every ship and every aircraft, hope that flight MH370 will be found increases, but for the relatives of passengers. It is an anxious wait.
