Live: Australia finds two large objects in Indian Ocean that could be debris from missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370

One piece measured approximately 24 metres, according to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

6:24 am
China's foreign ministry said today that it hopes Australia can send ships and aircraft as soon as possible to investigate two objects spotted by satellite floating in the southern Indian Ocean that may be from a missing Malaysian plane.

China has told its embassy in Australia to stay in close touch with the Australian government and help in search efforts, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The foreign ministry's statement came after Australian officials said an Australian air force AP-3C Orion plane was already at the scene, and more aircraft were on the way.

A merchant ship diverted for the task was due to arrive in a few hours.

6:21 am
Two images spotted by satellites that may be potential debris from a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner were "indistinct", with the largest measuring 24 metres, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said on Thursday.

"They are objects of a reasonable size and probably awash with water moving up and down over the surface," John Young, general manager of the emergency response division of AMSA, said.

Australia has sent four search aircraft and two ships to an area south of the search zone in the southern Indian Ocean it identified earlier this week to search for the objects pinpointed by satellites.

Water in the search area was "several thousand metres deep" and poor visibility in the area would hamper the search, although the weather was moderate, Young said.

6:19 am
Mr Abbott said he spoke to the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, about the latest developments.

Australia's high commissioner to Malaysia, Rod Smith, joined a meeting of senior Malaysia search officials at a Kuala Lumpur hotel after Mr Abbott's announcement. Mr Smith did not respond to reporters' questions.

Nearly two weeks after the plane went missing, the FBI has joined forces with Malaysian authorities in analysing deleted data on a flight simulator belonging to the pilot of the missing jet.

6:17 am
The Australian maritime agency has released this image showing the area where they suspect the debris to be.

Search crews are on the way there but there are reports of poor visibility in the area.



6:16 am
Tony Abbott did not say where the objects were. Military planes from Australia, the US and New Zealand were covering a search region over the southern Indian Ocean that was narrowed down yesterday from 232,000 square miles to 117,000 square miles.

The hunt for the Boeing 777 has been punctuated by several false leads since it disappeared on March 8 above the Gulf of Thailand.

Oil slicks that were spotted did not contain jet fuel. A yellow object thought to be from the plane turned out to be a piece of sea trash. Chinese satellite images showed possible plane debris, but nothing was found.

But this is the first time that possible objects have been spotted since the search area was massively expanded into two corridors, one stretching from northern Thailand into Central Asia and the other from the Strait of Malacca down to southern reaches of the Indian Ocean.

6:10 am
Australia's prime minister says two objects possibly related to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight have been spotted on satellite imagery.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Parliament in Canberra that a Royal Australian Airforce Orion has been diverted to the area to attempt to locate the objects.

The Orion is expected to arrive in the area later today. Three additional aircraft are expected to follow for a more intensive search.

Mr Abbott cautioned, however, that the task of locating these objects will be extremely difficult and "it may turn out that they are not related to the search for flight MH370".

12:26 am
Two key developments on the search for the missing plane have happened tonight.

US President Barack Obama said the search for the missing Malaysian plane is a "top priority" and "every resource" would be made available to find it.

His comments came after it was confirmed the FBI was officially helping with the investigation.

The FBI confirmed it is formally joining the investigation and said one of its roles will be to analyse some of the computer hard-drives which were seized at the pilots' homes.

We are now closing our live blog and will pick it up again later today.

Thanks for following.

10:52 pm
Tonight, US President Barack Obama said the search for the missing plane is a "top priority".

Speaking to KDFW of Dallas, he said: "We have put every resource that we have available at the disposal of the search process."

He added America would keep working to find the plane.

9:30 pm
Investigators probing the missing Malaysia Airlines plane are trying to restore files that were deleted from the pilot’s flight simulator, it emerged today.

Experts believe that recovering the data might help them piece together what happened to the jet.

The files, which contain records of the flight ?simulations made on Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s computer at his home, were wiped on February 3, a month before the Boeing 777 vanished.

Revealing the details, Malaysia’s acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein said: “Some data had been deleted from the simulator and forensic work to retrieve this data is ongoing.

“I would like to take this opportunity to state that the passengers, the pilots and the crew remain innocent until proven otherwise.”

8:30 pm
Earlier today, Malaysia's transport minister said all of the passengers and crew onboard the missing plane must be treated as innocent of any wrongdoing.

Hishammuddin Hussein, as reported by The Guardian, said: "Passengers, pilots and crew remain innocent until proven otherwise.

"For the sake of their families we ask you to refrain from any speculation that might make an already difficult time even harder."

7:32 pm
Prospects that a 26-nation operation would lead to quick results in finding the missing plane appear to be dwindling.

Investigators today confirmed they were focusing on the remote southern Indian Ocean after failing to find any traces of the jet further north.

"Our top priority is being given to that area," Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

7:13 pm
The White House has also confirmed the FBI is assisting with the investigation into the missing airliner.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Malaysia was also speaking to US aviation and transport accident investigation agencies, the BBC reported.

He added: "We are finding that the level of cooperation with the Malaysian government is solid, and we are working closely with the Malaysians as well as our other international partners in this effort to find out what happened to the plane and why it happened."

6:06 pm
The FBI and US Justice Department have offered to help the Malaysian government with its investigation ever since the plane went missing.

However, it was not until today that they were formally invited to join the inquiry.

Speaking to USA Today, Attorney General Eric Holder said the US and Malaysian  governments have been "in ongoing conversations about how we can help."

Holder added: "We're working with authorities, but we don't have any theories (on the cause of the plane's disappearance)."

5:09 pm
The father of one of the passengers onboard the missing flight has told how he still feels his son is alive.

Aubrey Wood, father of Philip Wood, told USA Today: "We're putting it in God's hands.  I personally feel he's still alive. … We believe they're somewhere on land. "

Many families are now clinging onto the hope that the plane was hijacked so there family members may still be alive.

4:09 pm
The FBI has confirmed today it is formally joining the investigation into the missing airliner .

One of its roles will be to analyse some of the computer hard-drives which were seized at the pilots' homes.

As reported by USA Today, the material, which includes a flight simulator, could soon be sent to an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.

3:10 pm
Malaysia Airlines has issued a statement saying that it will send text messages to families to get information to them more quickly.

An email address has also been set up so that families can reply.

The aim is to give 24-hour support to help try and answer questions relatives of people on the flight may have.

The statement said: "The Airline continues to work closely with the authorities and we appreciate the help we are receiving from all local and international agencies during this critical and traumatic period."

2:41 pm
A Malaysian news website has reported unnamed sources as saying that runways in the pilot's simulator included Deigo Garcia, Male International in the Maldives, and several in India and Sri Lanka.

Diego Garcia is a U.S. military base, but sources have already said that it had not landed there.

The source is quoted as saying: "We are not discounting the possibility that the plane landed on a runway that might not be heavily monitored, in addition to the theories that the plane landed on sea, in the hills or in an open space."

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah's simulator was removed from his home and it was revealed today that information had been deleted from the system.

2:37 pm
Here's the full story on the girl whose father is the chief steward on the missing plane.

She tweeted saying that she wanted her dad to see Liverpool winning and he never misses a game.

Liverpool Football Club replied to her tweet, offering their support.

1:35 pm
Here's a recap of what has happened today in events surrounding the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

There were chaotic scenes at a hotel where relatives' frustrations became ever-more apparent, leading to them being manhandled out of a press conference and into another room.

The Malaysian Government later said that it would launch an investigation into the handling of the distraught relatives.

It was revealed that data has been deleted from flight simulators found at the pilot's home and forensics experts are trying to retrieve the data.

As anger grew at a briefing of families in Beijing, Malaysia Airlines said it would be sending more people to the city to help keep relatives better informed.

Thailand finally released radar data showing the plane turning west and Indonesia said it would allow surveillance planes fly in its airspace in the search for the plane.

1:03 pm
At this morning's press conference acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein asked other countries to help by releasing their radar data.

He said: "I can confirm that we have received some radar data, but we are not at liberty to release information from other countries.

"I appeal to all our partners to continue volunteering any and all information that could help with the investigation and the search for MH370."

Malaysian flight MH370 ?

Some smokes has been spotted around the international airport of Maldives. This could be an explosion or what? Is this the end of the mystery of MH370?

Missing Plane Mystery: Faces Of Flight MH370

It is 11 days since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in the night and investigators appear no closer to knowing the fate of the passengers and crew on board.

The names of the 239 people currently missing are listed in black and white in the plane's manifest.

But these colour photos show the faces of those who were on the flight.

There were 14 different nationalities among the 227 passengers and 12 crew travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, although the majority - 153 in all - were Chinese.

Other passengers came from the United States, Canada, Indonesia, Iran, Australia, India, France, New Zealand, Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan and the Netherlands.

The youngest is two, the oldest 76. Seven of the passengers are children, five of whom are yet to see their fifth birthdays.

On board the plane were sons, daughters, husbands, wives and grandparents. Some were embarking on a new start, others returning home.

 Muktesh Mukherjee and his wife Xiaomo Bai

They included a famous stuntman, engineers, artists, Buddhist pilgrims, students, holidaymakers and honeymooners.

These are some of their stories:

:: The husband and wife returning to their sons

Muktesh Mukherjee and Xiaomo Bai were heading home to Beijing after a beach holiday in Vietnam.

Ms Bai, 37, had posted pictures of their break shortly before boarding the flight.

The couple's two young sons were waiting for them at home with Ms Bai's mother.

Mr Muktesh, 42, an Indian-born Canadian employed by US firm XCoal, met his wife while on a business trip to China in 2002.

They lived in Montreal before moving to Beijing.

:: The Hollywood stuntman

 Stuntman Ju Kun

Ju Kun's kung fu moves have featured in films such as Fearless, where he doubled for martial arts actor Jet Li, and The Expendables.

The 35-year-old was travelling to Beijing to see his two young children before starting work on the new Netflix and Weinstein Company series Marco Polo in Malaysia.

In a statement, Weinstein said: "He was an integral part of our production team and a tremendous talent. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this difficult time."

:: Teen lovers

French students Hadrien Wattrelos, 17, and Zhao Yan, 18, were heading for school in Beijing.

They had enrolled themselves in the Lycee Francais International de Pekin, also known as the French School.

Hadrien posted a picture of himself and Ms Zhao on a social media site, accompanied with the phrase: "Je t'aime."

Ms Zhao replied: "Haaaaaa mon amour, trooooop mignon."

Two other passengers on the flight, Laurence Wattrelos, 52, and Ambre Wattrelos, 14, are believed to be Hadrien's mother and sister.

:: The student studying in Hull

Yue Wenchao, 26, is originally from inner Mongolia but had moved to the UK to study a postgraduate course at the University of Hull Business School.

He was flying to Kuala Lumpur to visit his girlfriend.

In one of his last posts on a social media site on March 7, he wrote next to a photo of her: "See u in Beijing!"

:: The New Zealander

Paul Weeks, a mechanical engineer, left his wedding ring and watch at home when he headed to Mongolia for a work trip.

The devoted father instructed his wife, Danica, to pass them on to his two sons, three-year-old Lincoln and 10-month-old Jack, "should anything happen".

Danica, who lives in Perth, Australia, says the hardest part of the ordeal is explaining Paul's absence to their two children.

:: The Australian travel-lovers

Bob and Cathy Lawton loved to travel.

The couple, who are in their fifties and from Springfield Lakes, Australia, are parents to three daughters, as well as doting grandparents.

Cathy's last Facebook post before embarking on their latest adventure read: "Off to China."

:: The father and child

Hu Xiaoning, 34, was travelling home to Beijing with his three-year-old daughter Hu Siwan.

Proud mum Zhang Na has been an active user of China's microblogging site Weibo, regularly posting family photos.

China finds no terrorism link among its passengers on Malaysia Airlines plane

China says it has found no evidence that any of its citizens on board Malaysia Airlines' missing Flight 370 were involved in hijacking or terrorism.

Background checks on all passengers from the Chinese mainland on the plane has found nothing to support such suspicions, Huang Huikang, the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia, said Tuesday, according to the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Authorities have said they are investigating all 239 people who were on board the Boeing 777-200, which disappeared over Southeast Asia more than 10 days ago en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

According to the airline, 153 of the 227 passengers on board the plane came from mainland China or Hong Kong.

Malaysia says the evidence gathered so far suggests the plane was deliberately flown off course, turning west and traveling back over the Malay Peninsula and out into the Indian Ocean.

But they so far don't know who was at the controls or why whoever it was took the plane far away from its original destination.

They're also not sure where it ended up, saying its last known location detected by a satellite is somewhere along two wide arcs, one stretching north over Asia and the other south into the Indian Ocean. The plane's last electronic connection with the satellite was about six hours after it last showed up on Malaysian military radar.

The total area now being searched stands at 2.24 million square nautical miles, Hishammuddin Hussein, the Malaysian defense and transport minister said Tuesday.

Dampening speculation

By effectively ruling out suspicions for a large majority of the passengers, Chinese authorities appear to have significantly shortened the list of possible suspects.

The Chinese ambassador's statement is also likely to greatly dampen speculation that Uyghur separatists from China's far western region of Xinjiang might have been involved in the plane's disappearance.

One of the two long corridors where authorities say the plane was last detected stretched over Xinjiang, and unconfirmed reports had suggested the possibility that Uyghurs might be connected to the case.

Chinese authorities have accused separatists from Xinjiang of carrying out a terrorist attack earlier this month in which eight attackers armed with long knives stormed a train station in Kunming, a city in southwestern China, killing 29 people and wounding more than 140.

China said Tuesday that it had begun to search for the plane in the parts of its territory that fall under the northern corridor, deploying satellite and radar resources.

Experts are analyzing both past and present data along the arc stretching through Chinese territory, Hong Lei, a foreign ministry spokesman, said at a news briefing Tuesday in Beijing.

Turn made by computer?

The pilot and first officer of the missing plane, both of them Malaysian, have come under particular scrutiny in the search for clues. Investigators say that whoever flew the plane off course for hours appeared to know what they were doing.

But officials have so far reported no evidence to tie the pilot and first officer to the plane's disappearance.

Supporting the case that whoever took the plane off course had considerable aviation expertise, The New York Times reported that the aircraft's first turn to the west was carried out through a computer system that was most likely programmed by somebody in the cockpit.

The person who programmed the change of course would have been somebody "knowledgeable about airplane systems," The Times reported, citing unidentified American officials.

The information has increased investigators' focus on the pilot and first officer, the newspaper reported. CNN wasn't immediately able to confirm the report.

Malaysian officials weren't immediately available to comment on the Times report or the Chinese ambassador's statement.

Malaysia jet hunt focuses on cockpit crew

Malaysia's Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein confirmed that an apparently relaxed final voice communication from the cockpit - "All right, good night" - came after the aircraft communications addressing and reporting system (ACARS) had been deliberately shut down.

ACARS transmits key information on a plane's condition.

It has not been confirmed who gave that final voice message. But the assumption is the person would have known the ACARS system had been disabled.

US intelligence efforts were focusing on Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his first officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid, according to a senior US lawmaker.

"I think from all the information I've been briefed on from, you know, high levels within homeland security, national counterterrorism centre, intelligence community, that something was going on with the pilot," said Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

"I think this all leads towards the cockpit, with the pilot himself, and co-pilot," McCaul told Fox News.

The plane's transponder - which relays radar information on the plane's location - was switched off 14 minutes after ACARS went down.

Shortly afterwards the plane disappeared from civilian radar.

The plane went missing early on March 8 with 239 passengers and crew, including six Australians and two New Zealanders, spawning a massive international search across Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

For relatives of those on board, a hijacking scenario provides a slim hope that the plane might have landed undetected somewhere.

"If they found the wreckage of the plane then that would be finalised because there's no hope," said Australian David Lawton, whose brother was aboard.

"But while you've got hope, you've got worries, too," he told Fairfax media.

"Because if they're alive, are they being treated well, or what's happening?"

Malaysian police have searched both pilots' residences.

Associates say Captain Zaharie was an active supporter of Malaysia's political opposition headed by veteran politician Anwar Ibrahim.

In a highly controversial case, Anwar was convicted of sodomy - illegal in Muslim Malaysia - just hours before MH370 took off.

The number of countries involved in the physical search for the jet has nearly doubled over the past two days to 26, after satellite and military radar data projected two dauntingly large corridors the plane might have flown through.

The northern corridor stretches in an arc over south and central Asia, while the other swoops deep into the southern Indian Ocean towards Australia.

Malaysia announced that it was deploying its naval and air force assets to the southern corridor, with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott vowing substantial assistance.

Australia searches ocean for missing plane

Australian vessels are scouring the southern Indian Ocean and China has offered 21 of its satellites to help Malaysia in the unprecedented hunt.

With no wreckage found in one of the most puzzling aviation mysteries of all time, passengers' relatives have been left in an agonising limbo.

Investigators say the Boeing 777 was deliberately diverted during its overnight flight and flew off-course for hours. They haven't ruled out hijacking, sabotage, or pilot suicide, and are checking the backgrounds of the 227 passengers and 12 crew members - as well as the ground crew - for personal problems, psychological issues or links to terrorists.

Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Monday that finding the plane was still the main focus, and he did not rule out that it might be discovered intact.

"The fact that there was no distress signal, no ransom notes, no parties claiming responsibility, there is always hope," Hishammuddin said at a news conference.

French investigators have arrived in Kuala Lumpur to lend expertise from the two-year search for an Air France jet that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.

They said they were able to rely on distress signals in their search. But that vital tool is missing in the Malaysia Airlines case because the flight's communications were deliberately silenced ahead of its disappearance, investigators say.

"It's very different from the Air France case. The Malaysian situation is much more difficult," said Jean Paul Troadec, a special adviser to France's aviation accident investigation bureau.

Malaysia's government sent diplomatic cables to all countries in the search area, seeking more planes and ships, and asking for any radar data that might help.

The search initially focused on seas on either side of Peninsular Malaysia, in the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca.

It was vastly expanded after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said over the weekend that investigators determined that a satellite picked up a faint signal from the aircraft about 7 1/2 hours after takeoff. The signal indicated the plane would have been somewhere on a vast arc stretching from Kazakhstan in Central Asia to the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean.

Hishammuddin said on Monday that searches in both the northern and southern stretches of the arc had begun, and that countries from Australia in the south, China in the north and Kazakhstan to the west had joined the hunt.

Had the plane gone northwest to Central Asia, it would have crossed over countries with busy airspace. Some experts believe it more likely would have gone south, although Malaysian authorities are not ruling out the northern corridor and are eager for radar data that might confirm or rule out that route.

Australia agreed to Malaysia's request to take the lead in searching the southern Indian Ocean with four Orion maritime planes that would be joined by New Zealand and US aircraft, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.

Indonesia focused on Indian Ocean waters west of Sumatra, air force spokesman Rear Marshall Hadi Tjahjanto said.

The vast scope of the search, now involving 26 countries, was underlined when a US destroyer that already has helped cover 38,850 square kilometres of water dropped out.

The navy concluded that long-range aircraft were more efficient in looking for the plane or its debris than the USS Kidd and its helicopters, so effective Tuesday the ship was leaving the Indian Ocean search area, said Navy Cmdr William Marks, spokesman for the 7th Fleet.

Navy P-3 and P-8 surveillance aircraft remain available, and can cover 38,850 square kilometres in a nine-hour flight.

Malaysian flight MH370 found in Maldives

As the search continues near the boarders of Maldives, today one of the fishing vessel travelling near the borders has spotted one unidentified items near Laamu atoll. 

It has been more that 10 days since the boat has been vanished in to the air. The search for the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet that disappeared without a trace more than a week ago was on Monday expanded to include a wider area spanning Australia to Kazakhstan.

Malaysia’s Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters here that Australia and Indonesia were leading the search from the west of Sumatra to the south of the Indian Ocean. China and Kazakhstan are searching in the northern corridor from Laos to the Caspian Sea.
Flight MH370 with 239 people on board disappeared on March 8 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lampur. Most of the passengers of the Boeing 777-200 were Chinese nationals.
In addition to hijack, investigators are exploring the possibility of a suicide bid by the pilot or co-pilot, sabotage, kidnapping and terrorism.
A police source said investigators were studying the flight simulator found at the home of pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah, 52. The experienced pilot is a member of Malaysia’s Opposition party, whose leader, Anwar Ibrahim, was convicted of sodomy a few hours before the jet disappeared.
“So far there’s no evidence politics was involved in this incident,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Malaysia Airlines said co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid was most likely to have made the final spoken communication with the ATC in Kuala Lumpur before the aircraft disappeared from the radar.
Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the airline’s chief executive, said the voice from the cockpit said, “All right, good night,” at about 1.19 a.m. on March 8 (1719 GMT, March 7), 12 minutes after the last transmission of data from the jet’s ACARS communications system.
As the search continues near the boarders of Maldives, today one of the fishing vessel travelling near the boarder has spotted one unidentified items near Laamu atoll. 

Malaysian airplane investigators look at suicide as possible motive

(Reuters) - The co-pilot of a missing Malaysian jetliner spoke the last words heard from the cockpit, the airline's chief executive said on Monday, as investigators consider suicide by the captain or first officer as one possible explanation for the disappearance.

No trace of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been found since it vanished on March 8 with 239 people aboard. Investigators are increasingly convinced it was diverted perhaps thousands of miles off course by someone with deep knowledge of the Boeing 777-200ER and commercial navigation.

A search unprecedented in its scale is now under way for the plane, covering an area stretching from the shores of the Caspian Sea in the north to deep in the southern Indian Ocean.

Airline chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya also told a news conference that it was unclear exactly when one of the plane's automatic tracking systems had been disabled, appearing to contradict the weekend comments of government ministers.

Suspicions of hijacking or sabotage had hardened further when officials said on Sunday that the last radio message from the plane - an informal "all right, good night" - was spoken after the tracking system, known as "ACARS", was shut down.

"Initial investigations indicate it was the co-pilot who basically spoke the last time it was recorded on tape," Ahmad Jauhari said on Monday, when asked who it was believed had spoken those words.

That was a sign-off to air traffic controllers at 1.19 a.m., as the Beijing-bound plane left Malaysian airspace.

The last transmission from the ACARS system - a maintenance computer that relays data on the plane's status - had been received at 1.07 a.m., as the plane crossed Malaysia's northeast coast and headed out over the Gulf of Thailand.

"We don't know when the ACARS was switched off after that," Ahmad Jauhari said. "It was supposed to transmit 30 minutes from there, but that transmission did not come through."

FOCUS ON CREW

The plane vanished from civilian air traffic control screens off Malaysia's east coast less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian authorities believe that someone on board shut off its communications systems as the plane flew across the Gulf of Thailand.

Malaysian police are trawling through the backgrounds of the pilots, flight and ground staff for any clues to a possible motive in what they say is now being treated as a criminal investigation.

Asked if pilot or co-pilot suicide was a line of inquiry,

Malaysian Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said: "We are looking at it." But it was only one of the possibilities under investigation, he added.

Intensive efforts by various governments to investigate the backgrounds of everyone on the airplane had not, as of Monday, turned up any information linking anyone to militant groups or anyone with a known political or criminal motive to crash or hijack the aircraft, U.S. and European security sources said.

One source familiar with U.S. inquiries into the disappearance said the pilots were being studied because of the technical knowledge needed to disable the ACARS system.

Many experts and officials say while the jet's transponder can be switched off by flicking a switch in the cockpit, turning off ACARS may have required someone to open a trap door outside the cockpit, climb down into the plane's belly and pull a fuse or circuit breaker.

Whoever did so, had to have sophisticated knowledge of the systems on a 777, according to pilots and two current and former U.S. officials close to the investigation.

Malaysian police special branch officers searched the homes of the captain, 53-year-old Zaharie Ahmad Shah, and first officer, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, in middle-class suburbs of Kuala Lumpur close to the international airport on Saturday.

Among the items taken for examination was a flight simulator Zaharie had built in his home.

A senior police official familiar with the investigation said the flight simulator programmes were closely examined, adding they appeared to be normal ones that allow users to practice flying and landing in different conditions.

A second senior police official with knowledge of the investigation said they had found no evidence of a link between the pilot and any militant group.

Some U.S. officials have expressed frustration at Malaysia's handling of the investigation. As of Monday morning the Malaysian government still had not invited the FBI to send a team to Kuala Lumpur, two U.S. security officials said.

The FBI, which has extensive experience in investigating airplane crashes, and other U.S. law enforcement agencies have indicated they are eager to send teams to Kuala Lumpur, but will not do so unless formally invited.

VAST SEARCH CORRIDORS

Police and a multi-national investigation team may never know for sure what happened in the cockpit unless they find the plane, and that in itself is a daunting challenge.

Satellite data suggests it could be anywhere in either of two vast corridors that arc through much of Asia: one stretching north from Laos to the Caspian, the other south from west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra into the southern Indian Ocean west of Australia.

Aviation officials in Pakistan, India, and Central Asian countries Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan - as well as Taliban militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan - said they knew nothing about the whereabouts of the plane.

China, which has been vocal in its impatience with Malaysian efforts to find the plane, called on its smaller neighbor to immediately expand and clarify the scope of the search. About two-thirds of the passengers aboard MH370 were Chinese.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he had spoken to Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak by telephone, and had offered more surveillance resources in addition to the two P-3C Orion aircraft his country has already committed.

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin said diplomatic notes had been sent to all countries along the northern and southern search corridors, requesting radar and satellite information as well as land, sea and air search operations.

The Malaysian navy and air force were also searching the southern corridor, he said, and U.S. P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft were being sent to Perth, in Western Australia, to help scour the ocean.

NORTH OR SOUTH?

Electronic signals between the plane and satellites continued to be exchanged for nearly six hours after MH370 flew out of range of Malaysian military radar off the northwest coast, following a commercial aviation route across the Andaman Sea towards India.

The plane had enough fuel to fly for about 30 minutes after that last satellite communication, Ahmad Jauhari said.

Twenty-six countries are involved in the search, stretching across much of Asia.

A source familiar with official U.S. assessments of satellite data being used to try to find the plane said it was believed most likely it turned south sometime after the last sighting by Malaysian military radar, and may have run out of fuel over the Indian Ocean.

The Malaysian government-controlled New Straits Times on Monday quoted sources close to the investigation as saying data collected was pointing instead towards the northern corridor.