Live report on Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

Day 4

23:15 March 11

Special: Malaysia Airlines plane missing

Vietnam has widened the search for the missing Malaysian jetliner to the further east and west of the Gulf of Thailand. Meanwhile its joint operation with Malaysia near the Strait of Malacca has so far made little progress, said Do Minh Tuan, deputy commander of the air force at a press conference here Tuesday.

He told reporters that no suspected debris or other objects from the missing aircraft had been found and some of the objects found earlier were later dismissed as irrelevant to the jetliner after lab tests. These included the white floating objects reported by the Americans, which turned out to have nothing to do with the missing air plane.

21:30 March 11

Seven Chinese search and rescue vessels have been searching for the missing flight MH370. Another one will join the action on Wednesday morning, said China's transportation authorities.

The flotilla will adjust its search plan by expanding search scope and coordianting passing Chinese merchant ships for the search and rescue mission.

20:40 March 11

There is still no trace of the aircraft which vanished early on Saturday, 88 hours after its disappearance, said a spokesman for Malaysian Airlines in Beijing on Tuesday.

20:05 March 11

China's Air Force said that two of its planes conducted a three-hour search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane on Tuesday.

20:00 March 11

Five Chinese search and rescue vessels, including two warships, were searching for missing flight MH370 as of 3 pm Beijing time, the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center said Tuesday.

19:30 March 11

Malaysian police named one as Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, 18, and said he was probably migrating to Germany.

Interpol identified the other as Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza, 29. (BBC)

19:00 March 11

Malaysia's military believes it tracked missing plane on radar to Strait of Malacca, military source says. (Reuters)

17:00 March 11

The Chinese task force that arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday morning to work on matters dealing with missing Flight MH370 opened an account on Sina Weibo, updating its activities.

16:00 March 11

A photo of Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, a 19-year-old Iranian man who used the stolen passport to board the missing plane, was shown at a press conference held by local government in Kuala Lumpur. [Photo by Peng Yining/chinadaily.com.cn]

Photos of two stolen passport users. [Photo by Peng Yining/chinadaily.com.cn]

15:35 March 11

China has called on the Malaysian government to step up efforts to search for the missing plane and also to take care of the families of the passengers, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

15:15 March 11

A 19-year-old Iranian man, Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, used the stolen passport to board the missing plane. But he was not thought to be a terrrorist.

Malaysian police are looking at four explanations for disappearance and studying the behavior of all passengers.

Khalid Abu Bakar, inspector general of Malaysia police, said one stolen passport user was Iranian asylum seeker and the second stolen passport user is still being investigated.

(BBC)

15:00 March 11

Chinese Embassy in Malaysia has told Xinhua on Monday said the Malaysia has dismissed media reports that hijacking, mid-air disintegration and radar malfuctioning led to the missing of MH 370 flight.

13:57 March 11

A sign filled with well wishes to the passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 reads "Have Hope" at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Thursday. The so-far fruitless search for a missing Malaysian airliner entered its fourth day.

13:45 March 11

China has deployed 10 satellites to help in the massive air and sea search for a missing Malaysian airliner, the People's Liberation Army Daily said on Tuesday.

The satellites will use high-resolution earth imaging capabilities, visible light imaging and other technologies to "support and assist in the search and rescue operations for the Malaysian Airlines aircraft", the newspaper said in an article that was also carried on the defence ministry's website.

13:37 March 11

Highlights of Malaysia Airlines' 11th statement:

Search and rescue efforts for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane have been expanded beyond the flight path and the focus now is "on the West Peninsula of Malaysia at the Straits of Malacca."

"Apart from the search in the sea, search on land in between these areas is also conducted," said the airline.

The missing aircraft underwent maintenance about two weeks ago, with no safety problems found, the carrier announced.

The aircraft was delivered to Malaysia Airlines in 2002 and has since recorded 53,465.21 hours with a total of 7,275 cycles.

01:25 March 11

Vietnam's search and rescue teams will move the focus of their search toward the eastern part of the air route of the missing Malaysian jetliner, a Vietnamese army officer was quoted by state-run news agency VNA as saying Monday.

Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of the People's Army of Vietnam said the readjustment in focus is aimed to have a greater chance to find the missing plane.

At press conference Monday evening in Vietnam's southern Phu Quoc Island, Vietnamese authorities said they would widen their search by some 20,000 km from Tuesday. More than 100 domestic and foreign reporters who came to cover the multinational search mission attended the press conference.

00:20 March 11

Malaysia Airlines will fly MH370 passengers' families from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur, according to the company website Monday.

The company is deploying an aircraft to bring the families from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur on March 11, but will reveal nothing of the flight or the families' movements to protect their privacy.