Missing Plane: More Satellites Scan For MH370

Satellite and radar surveillance is being stepped up in the hunt for flight MH370 as investigation into the missing plane enters its 11th day.

At a news conference Malaysia's Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the air and surface search area was being expanded and that other countries had been asked to examine radar data.

China has started using satellites to scan for the jet after signals sent from the plane suggested its last position could be anywhere along two arcs stretching from Central Asia to the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean. 

Mr Hishammuddin revealed the search area in these areas totals nearly three million square miles (7.7 million square km) - an area equivalent to the size of Australia.

Messages of support for family members at Kualar Lumpur airport

Twenty-six countries are now involved in the search. Mr Hishammuddin said two more of its ships had been deployed to the south corridor.

Deep-ocean surveillance capabilities are also being deployed which could locate the aircraft's black box flight recorder assuming it had crashed into the sea.

Some families of passengers have threatened to go on a hunger strike, as their desperate wait for news continues.

The threat from relatives waiting in Beijing came as it emerged two-thirds of those on flight MH370 have been cleared of any links to terrorism, according to officials.

Some 239 passengers were on board flight MH370 when it vanished

"Relatives are very unsatisfied. So you hear them saying 'hunger strike'," Wen Wancheng, whose son was aboard the missing flight, told reporters at the Beijing hotel where families are gathered.

During today's news conference a representative of Malaysia Airlines said they were doing all they could to look after family members and that care assistants had been provided.

Background checks on all 154 Chinese passengers have not uncovered any evidence suggesting a plot to hijack or bring down the aircraft, Huang Huikang, the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia, said.

It appears to discount one theory that Uighur separatists - the group blamed for an attack in Beijing's Tiananmen Square last October and the massacre at Kunming railway station earlier this month - might have been involved in the plane's disappearance.

Mr Hamid and Mr Zaharie were at the controls of the Boeing 777

There has been no trace of the Boeing 777 since it disappeared less than one hour into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

The aircraft's tracking devices were deliberately switched off, allowing it to travel almost undetected.

Satellite data suggests the plane flew for at least seven hours and could have ended up anywhere from central Asia to the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean.

It has prompted an unprecedented search involving teams from some 26 countries, who are scouring huge swathes of land and ocean for any sign of the aircraft.

Mr Huang said searches are now under way in China - part of which crosses a northern corridor across which the plane may have flown.

Meanwhile, investigators continue to probe the background of pilots Zaharie Ahmad Shah and Fariq Abdul Hamid, as well as ground engineers who worked on the aircraft before it took off.

The homes of both pilots have been searched and a flight simulator belonging to Mr Zaharie seized.

It is believed Mr Hamid made the last communication from the aircraft, calmly telling air traffic controllers as the plane passed into Vietnamese air space: "All right, good night."

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who is expected to provide an update on the search at a news conference later, said: "The fact that there was no distress signal, no ransom notes, no parties claiming responsibility, there is always hope."

Malaysia's former transport minister Ong Tee Keat told Sky News the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) - a UN body - should take on the investigation to ensure there are no cover-ups or withholding of information.

He said he was not alleging a cover-up, but said transparency is needed.

He also said better coordination is needed among Malaysian government agencies and between countries to help find the plane.

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