Avião desaparece....

[5555]

Detetada mancha de óleo que pode ser resultado de queda de avião da Malásia

http://www.jn.pt/PaginaInicial/Mundo/Interior.aspx?content_id=3726126

(Em atualização) Uma mancha de óleo de cerca de 20 quilómetros, detetada, este sábado, entre a Malásia e o Vietname, é o primeiro sinal de que o avião da Malásia Airlines, com 239 pessoas a bordo, se terá despenhado no mar.

"Um avião da Marinha do Vietname descobriu uma mancha de óleos de 20 quilómetros na área de busca, que se presume seja do avião que se despenhou", disse o diretor da Administração da Aviação Civi vietnamita, em declarações citadas pelo jornal norte-americano New York Times.

Lai Xuan Thanh disse que comunicou a informação às autoridades de Singapura e da Malásia, mas não foi capaz de especificar se a mancha de óleo está mais próxima do Vietname ou da Malásia.

O Boeing 777-200 voava entre Kuala Lumpur e Pequim.

Acrescenta a CNN, citando um responsável vietnamita, que além do óleo foi encontrado lixo na zona de buscas.

Vários países efetuam já buscas no mar da China meridional, região cuja soberania de algumas zonas é disputada por várias nações. Vietname, China, Singapura e Malásia têm já meios na zona a procurar o avião.

O Ministério da Defesa vietnamita anunciou uma operação de busca na Malásia, que envolve um avião, dois helicópteros e quatro navios que vão patrulhar ao largo da costa leste do mar da China meridional.

A China enviou para o local navios de patrulha marítima e as Filipinas três navios e uma aeronave.

"Estamos muito tristes com a informação sobre o voo MH370", disse o presidente executivo da companhia aérea, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya Malaysia Airlines, em conferência de imprensa.

"A nossa prioridade agora é trabalhar com as equipas de resgate e as autoridades", acrescentou. Segundo Ahmad Jauhari, entre os passageiros do avião, seguiam 12 crianças.

A lista dos 227 passageiros, 153 são chineses, 38 malaios, sete indonésios, seis australianos, quatro americanos e três franceses, informou:
http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/content/dam/mas/master/en/pdf/Malaysia%20Airlines%20Flight%20MH%20370%20Passenger%20Manifest.pdf

No Aeroporto Internacional de Kuala Lumpur, familiares dos passageiros aguardam com angústia informações sobre o aparelho, mantendo-se afastados da imprensa.

"A minha esposa está a chorar. Todo o mundo está triste", disse Hamid Ramlan, um polícia de 56 anos, cuja filha de 34 anos seguia a bordo com o filho para umas férias na China.

O pior acidente do transporte comercial aéreo da Malásia aconteceu a 04 de dezembro de 1977, quando um avião da Malásia Arilines se despenhou e morreram as 100 pessoas a bordo.

[5555]

Malásia: telemóveis das vítimas dão sinal de chamada

O mistério em torno do desaparecimento do Boeing 777 da Malaysia Airlines continua a crescer

Por: tvi24 / PP     |   2014-03-11 12:48

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w4J5J7MVHo

Um grupo de 19 famílias chinesas assinou um documento a confirmar que os telemóveis dos seus familiares dão sinal de chamada, quatro dias após o misterioso desaparecimento do Boeing 777 da Malaysia Airlines, avançam alguns jornais chineses e o jornal britânico «The Mirror». O mistério em torno deste caso parece não ter fim e as famílias agarram-se aos factos que lhes dão esperança.

Segundo o «The Mirror», a própria companhia aérea, a Malaysia Airlines, tentou ligar para os aparelhos móveis da tripulação e também ouviu sinal de chamada em alguns casos. O toque de chamada dura poucos segundos e, depois, a ligação cai sem resposta. É como se a chamada fosse feita, mas ninguém atendesse.

Tão estranho como as chamadas telefónicas, é o facto de alguns passageiros surgirem «online» nas redes sociais. Um homem garantiu aos jornalistas que, por exemplo, o perfil do seu irmão aparece como «online» na QQ, uma rede social chinesa.

Já no domingo, um familiar tinha tentado ligar, em direto na televisão, para o telemóvel de um passageiro e, apesar de se ouvir o toque de chamada, ninguém respondeu.

No entanto, nenhum telefonema ou mensagem na internet obteve resposta.

Em declarações à estação de televisão norte-americana «NBC News», um especialista esclareceu que os telemóveis e a rede podem explicar o sinal de chamada que se ouve. Segundo o analista Jeff Kagan, nem sempre que se ouve um telemóvel a «chamar» significa que o aparelho esteja, de facto, ligado.

Ou seja, é possível que quem liga ouça um sinal de chamada, sem que o aparelho receba qualquer ligação. Basta que a «rede procure o telemóvel» para se ouvir o sinal de chamada e quando não encontra o aparelho «desliga», acrescentou.

O toque de chamada pode acontecer com telemóveis em «modo de avião» ou em aparelhos já destruídos.

Ao fim de quatro dias, não há qualquer sinal do avião. Nem destroços, nem pistas. Nenhuma resposta para o que pode ter acontecido, apesar intensas buscas, apoiadas por dezenas de aviões, navios ou satélites. Nem o mais avançado equipamento está a conseguir ajudar à resolução do mistério.

Esta terça-feira, as autoridades parecem ter descartado a tese de atentado terrorista, mas admitem a possibilidade de «mão criminosa» no incidente.

[tatanka]

Diabo.......

Tão estranho como as chamadas telefónicas, é o facto de alguns passageiros surgirem «online» nas redes sociais. Um homem garantiu aos jornalistas que, por exemplo, o perfil do seu irmão aparece como «online» na QQ, uma rede social chinesa.

[soueusou]

Diabo.......

Tão estranho como as chamadas telefónicas, é o facto de alguns passageiros surgirem «online» nas redes sociais. Um homem garantiu aos jornalistas que, por exemplo, o perfil do seu irmão aparece como «online» na QQ, uma rede social chinesa.

basta alguém ter deixado um computador ligado no trabalho, em casa, ...

[deMelo]

Diabo.......

Tão estranho como as chamadas telefónicas, é o facto de alguns passageiros surgirem «online» nas redes sociais. Um homem garantiu aos jornalistas que, por exemplo, o perfil do seu irmão aparece como «online» na QQ, uma rede social chinesa.

basta alguém ter deixado um computador ligado no trabalho, em casa, ...

....provavelmente se o dispositivo for destruído, nem tem tempo de dizer "ai"....

"ai" neste caso poderia ser, "vou desligar", ou "vou ficar offline".... 

[Zel]

foram raptados por extra-terrestres mas os telemoveis ficaram na terra, dentro do aviao algures nos himalaias

[5555]

Voo MH370 da Malaysia Airlines - Avião mudou rota e dirigiu-se para o Estreito de Malaca

© Reuters

O Boeing 777-220ER desaparecido no fim de semana, quando voava entre Kuala Lumpur e Pequim, afastou-se da sua rota e voou a baixa altitude durante quase uma hora depois de ter desaparecido dos radares da aviação civil, revelaram ontem à noite altas fontes militares da Malásia.

A revelação surge após segunda-feira o chefe de estado-maior da força aérea do país ter dito que o voo MH370 fora brevemente detetado nos radares militares e coincidiu com o anúncio do alargamento da área de buscas de forma a incluir, além das regiões previstas no trajecto previsto do aparelho da Malaysia Airlines, quase todo o Golfo da Tailândia, uma maior área do Mar da China do Sul e todo o território da Malásia peninsular, onde se situa Kuala Lumpur, além do Estreito de Malaca onde já decorriam buscas desde o início da semana.

Um fonte militar garantiu que o voo MH370 sobrevoou o Estreito de Malaca cerca das 02.40 da manhã de sábado (18.40 de sexta-feira em Portugal continental), isto é cerca de uma hora depois de ter desaparecido dos radares dos controladores de tráfego aéreo em Kuala Lumpur e no Vietname. "Mudou de rota, baixou de altitude e dirigiu-se para o Estreito", disse à Reuters aquela fonte militar. Todavia, isto não explica porque continua a não ser encontrado qualquer sinal do que terá sucedido em seguida.

O Estreito de Malaca é das vias marítimas mais concorridas do mundo, nele circulando centenas de petroleiros e porta-contentores. Com o comprimento de 800 quilómetros, no seu ponto mais estreito tem apenas 65 quilómetros de largura. Inúmeros recifes e bancos de areia complicam a sua travessia em águas de pouca profundidade, em média na ordem dos 25 metros. A revelação surgida ontem devolve relevância à teoria de uma possível ação terrorista. Por isso, o diretor da CIA, John Brennan, dizia ontem que só pelo facto de "não ter sido feita nenhuma reivindicação" não elimina a hipótese de ato terrorista. Um avião que se despenhasse sobre o Estreito embatendo num navio poderia causar sérios transtornos à navegação num ponto fundamental para o trânsito de mercadorias e combustível da e para a China. Este país, a que pertence o maior número de prováveis vítimas, anunciou a reorientação de dez satélites militares, dotados de equipamento ótico de alta resolução, para a área das buscas.

[5555]

Malaysian military: Missing jet changed course

http://news.yahoo.com/malaysian-military-missing-jet-changed-course-200731719.html?vp=1

[5555]

Malásia nega que voo seguiu por 4h e diz que fotos de satélite eram engano

Malásia nega que voo seguiu por 4h e diz que fotos de satélite eram engano

BBC Brasil

"Ministro dos Transportes"

As autoridades da Malásia negaram categoricamente nesta quinta-feira a informação de que o voo MH370, sumido há quase uma semana, teria continuado voando por quatro horas depois do último sinal detectado por radar.

A hipótese foi levantada pelo jornal americano Wall Street Journal, que cita uma autoridade americana anônima.

O Wall Street Journal cita um suposto sistema que envia dados dos motores automaticamente a bases terrestres. O jornal levanta a possibilidade de o avião ter percorrido 3,5 mil quilômetros desde o último momento em que foi detectado, o que daria tempo de ele chegar a lugares como Paquistão ou Mongólia.

No entanto, o ministro dos Transportes, Hishammuddin Hussein, negou todas as informações da reportagem.

Ele disse que as três empresas envolvidas no caso - a fabricante do avião Boeing, a fabricante do motor Rolls Royce e a operadora Malaysian Airlines - estão trabalhando junto com as autoridades da Malásia, e que nenhuma delas confirma a existência do suposto sistema de dados.

'As notícias [do jornal] são imprecisas', disse ele.

O MH370 da Malaysian Airlines partiu às 0h41 de sábado do aeroporto internacional de Kuala Lumpur e tinha previsão de chegar a Pequim, na China, às 6h30. Hussein diz que o último sinal emitido pelo voo foi às 01h07.

'O avião simplesmente desapareceu', disse o ministro, em entrevista coletiva.

Ele disse que seguem as buscas pelo avião, que tinha 239 pessoas a bordo, a maioria cidadãos chineses.

'Engano' de imagens

O ministro malaio também disse que as fotos de satélite divulgadas pela China na quarta-feira, supostamente mostrando destroços da aeronave no oceano, eram errôneas. Segundo Hussein, as autoridades chinesas disseram à Malásia que as fotos foram divulgadas 'por engano e não mostram nenhum destroço'.

As três imagens publicadas por um site do governo chinês mostram o que parecem ser grandes objetos flutuando no Mar do Sul da China.

No entanto, duas missões enviadas ao local não conseguiram achar nada. O vice-diretor da autoridade de aviação civil do Vietnã, Dinh Viet Thang, disse à agência AFP que dois aviões que sobrevoaram a região não encontrara vestígio algum.

O diretor de aviação civil da Malásia, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, disse a repórteres que aviões malaios também inspecionaram a região e não encontraram nada.

Outros supostos pedaços de destroços avistados previamente acabaram não tendo relação com o voo.

A especulação de que os pilotos teriam tido algum tipo de má-fé e poderiam estar envolvidos nas causas do sumiço do voo não foi confirmada pelo ministro. Ele afirmou que as autoridades não fizeram buscas nas casas dos pilotos.

Outro sinal

Depois de quase uma semana do desaparecimento do voo MH370, outro sinal ainda intriga os investigadores do sumiço.

A última comunicação verbal foi feita na fronteira do espaço aéreo da Malásia com o Vietnã, com pilotos passando o recado a controladores malaios dizendo que tudo estava bem.

Depois disso, nenhuma mensagem ou sinal de alerta foi emitido.

Autoridades da aeronáutica da Malásia revelaram na quarta-feira que seus radares detectaram uma aeronave não-identificada pouco tempo depois do sumiço do voo MH379. A aeronave teria sido detectada às 2h15, revelou o chefe da Força Aérea Real da Malásia, Rodzali Daud.

Mas não há nenhuma confirmação de que ela possa ser o voo desaparecido. Daud disse que a informação foi compartilhada com autoridades de diversos países, inclusive dos Estados Unidos, e que os militares estão investigando o caso.

BBC Brasil - Todos os direitos reservados. É proibido todo tipo de reprodução sem autorização por escrito da BBC.

[5555]

US Officials Have 'Indication' Malaysia Airline Crashed into Indian Ocean

Good Morning America – 17 minutes ago



 U.S. officials have an "indication" the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner may have crashed in the Indian Ocean and is moving the USS Kidd to the area to begin searching.

It will take another 24 hours to move the ship into position, a senior Pentagon official told ABC News.

"We have an indication the plane went down in the Indian Ocean," the senior official said.

The official initially said there were indications that the plane flew four or five hours after disappearing from radar and that they believe it went into the water. Officials later said the plane likely did not fly four or five hours, but did not specify how long it may have been airborne.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “It's my understanding that based on some new information that's not necessarily conclusive, but new information, an additional search area may be opened in the Indian Ocean, and we are consulting with international partners about the appropriate assets to deploy.”

Carney did not specify the nature of the “new information.”

Pentagon officials said that the USS Kidd was being moved at the request of Malaysia and is heading towards an area where the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea meet. The ship has helicopters aboard that can scour the area.

The U.S. action came hours after Malaysian officials said they had extended their search into the Andaman Sea and had requested help from India in the search for the missing plane and its 239 passengers.

Investigators also said today that U.S. officials gave them reasons to keep searching the waters west of Malaysia, far from the flight path of the Malaysia Airlines plane.

Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that the search’s “main focus has always been in the South China Sea,” which is east of Malaysia and along the plane’s route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

But the search was extended earlier this week to include water far to the west on the other side of Malaysia.

“We are working very closely with the FAA and the NTSB on the issue of a possible air turn back,” Hishammuddin said, referring to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.

“They have indicated to us that based on the information given by the Malaysian authorities, they — being the FAA and NTSB — the U.S. team was of the view that there was reasonable ground for the Malaysian authorities to deploy resources to conduct search on the western side of the peninsula of Malaysia. Under the circumstances, it is appropriate to conduct the search even if the evidence suggests there is a possibility of finding a minor evidence to suggest that ... the aircraft would have been there.”

Hishammuddin said it was possible the plane kept flying after dropping off of radar. "Of course, this is why we have extended the search," he said.

The Malaysians spent much of today's news conference dismissing earlier leads.

"I’ve heard of many incidents from many sources. Like we have said from the start, we have looked at every lead and in most cases — in fact in all cases — that we have pursued, we have not found anything positive," Hishamuddin said.

He said that pictures of three large objects floating in the South China Sea posted Wednesday on a Chinese government website were not debris from the missing plane.

"A Malaysian maritime enforcement agency surveillance plane was dispatched this morning to investigate potential debris shown on Chinese satellite images. We deployed assets, but found nothing. We have contacted the Chinese Embassy who notified us this afternoon the images were released by mistake and did not show any debris from MH370," he said.

Hishamuddin also dismissed a report by the Wall Street Journal that signals sent by the plane's Rolls Royce engine indicated the plane kept flying for up to five hours. He didn't dispute the plane could have kept flying, but said Rolls Royce did not receive any signals from the engine after it vanished from radar.

Earlier in the search, two oil slicks were determined to not be from the plane and an orange object thought to be part of the plane's door was investigated and found to be unrelated.

[5555]

Dois milhões de internautas em busca Boeing desaparecido

http://www.examiner.com/article/tomnod-search-how-you-can-help-find-mh370-plane-via-satellite-from-your-laptop


O avião da Malaysian Airlines que desapareceu está a ser alvo de buscas marítimas, aéreas e virtuais. Há dois milhões de utilizadores a verem imagens recolhidas por satélite para ver se encontram algum vestígio.

O convite foi feito pela Digital Globe, que acabou por disponibilizar as imagens recolhidas pelos seus satélites e que cobrem uma gigantesca área entre o Golfo da Tailândia e o Mar da China.

As imagens foram captadas a 400 milhas de altitude, por dois satélites, e disponibilizadas num site preparador para o efeito. Os utilizadores são convidados a marcar como objetos de interesse sempre que detetem algum vestígio, embarcação ou manchas de combustível. Tudo o que pareça «interessante» ou «suspeito» deverá ser assinalado, noticia o Digital Trends.

As informações são depois passadas para as autoridades que, em última instância, decidem como agir, uma vez que neste momento já foram marcados mais de 650 mil objetos, numa vasta área.

O avião desapareceu no sábado de manhã, com 239 passageiros e tripulantes e ainda não há qualquer versão oficial do que poderá ter acontecido.

[5555]

......"the White house spokesman".......


http://news.yahoo.com/missing-plane-sent-signals-satellite-hours-211405973--politics.html

[tatanka]

......"the White house spokesman".......


http://news.yahoo.com/missing-plane-sent-signals-satellite-hours-211405973--politics.html

90% dos americanos não vão perceber a analogia 

The total search area being covered is about 35,800 square miles (92,600 square kilometers) — about the size of Portugal.

[Incognitus]

Se fosse "about the size of Kansas", 99.9% dos Portugueses também não a perceberiam ...

[5555]

Malaysian official says missing plane hijacked



Associated Press, 3 hours ago

Search for Jet Expands Amid Signs It Flew On
     
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A Malaysian investigation into the missing flight 370 has concluded that one or more people with flying experience switched off communications devices and deliberately steered the airliner off-course, a Malaysian government official involved in the investigation said Saturday.

Malaysian: Investigators conclude flight hijacked

vídeo: http://www.reuters.com/video/2014/03/15/malaysian-pm-says-lost-planes-movements?videoId=293948280&newsChannel=wtMostRead

The official called the disappearance a hijacking, though he said no motive has been established and no demands have been made known. It's not yet clear where the plane ended up, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

The official said a deliberate takeover of the plane was no longer a theory. "It is conclusive," he said, indicating that investigators were ruling out mechanical failure or pilot error in the disappearance.

He said evidence that led to the conclusion were signs that the plane's communications were switched off deliberately, data about the flight path and indications the plane was steered in a way to avoid detection by radar.

The Boeing 777's communication with the ground was severed just under one hour into a Malaysia Airlines flight March 8 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Malaysian officials previously have said radar data suggest it may have turned back toward and crossed over the Malaysian peninsula after setting out on a northeastern path toward the Chinese capital.

Earlier, an American official told The Associated Press that investigators are examining the possibility of "human intervention" in the plane's disappearance, adding it may have been "an act of piracy."

Missing Malaysian Plane Search Moves West

While other theories are still being examined, the U.S. official said key evidence suggesting human intervention is that contact with the Boeing 777's transponder stopped about a dozen minutes before a messaging system on the jet quit. Such a gap would be unlikely in the case of an in-flight catastrophe.

The Malaysian official said only a skilled aviator could navigate the plane the way it was flown after its last confirmed location over the South China Sea. The official said it had been established with a "more than 50 percent" degree of certainty that military radar had picked up the missing plane after it dropped off civilian radar.

Why anyone would want to do this is unclear. Malaysian authorities and others will be urgently investigating the backgrounds of the two pilots and 10 crew members, as well the 227 passengers on board.

Some experts have said that pilot suicide may be the most likely explanation for the disappearance, as was suspected in a SilkAir crash during a flight from Singapore to Jakarta in 1997 and an EgyptAir flight in 1999.

A massive international search effort began initially in the South China Sea where the plane's transponders stopped transmitting. It has since been expanded onto the other side of the Malay peninsula up into the Andaman Sea and into the Indian Ocean.

Scores of aircraft and ships from 12 countries are involved in the search.

The plane had enough fuel to fly for at least five hours after its last known location, meaning a vast swath of South and Southeast Asia would be within its reach. Investigators are analyzing radar and satellite data from around the region to try and pinpoint its final location, something that will be vital to hopes of finding the plane, and answering the mystery of what happened to it.

The USS Kidd arrived in the Strait of Malacca late Friday afternoon and will be searching in the Andaman Sea, and into the Bay of Bengal. It uses a using a "creeping-line" search method of following a pattern of equally spaced parallel lines in an effort to completely cover the area.

A P-8A Poseidon, the most advanced long range anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare aircraft in the world, will arrive Saturday and be sweeping the southern portion of the Bay of Bengal and the northern portion of the Indian Ocean. It has a nine-member crew and has advanced surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, the department of defense said in a statement.

Another U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators looking for the plane have run out of clues except for a type of satellite data that has never been used before to find a missing plane, and is very inexact.

The data consists of attempts by an Inmarsat satellite to identify a broad area where the plane might be in case a messaging system aboard the plane should need to connect with the satellite, said the official. The official compared the location attempts, called a "handshake," to someone driving around with their cellphone not in use. As the phone from passes from the range of one cellphone tower to another, the towers note that the phone is in range in case messages need to be sent.

In the case of the Malaysian plane, there were successful attempts by the satellite to roughly locate the Boeing 777 about once an hour over four to five hours, the official said. "This is all brand new to us," the official said. "We've never had to use satellite handshaking as the best possible source of information."

The handshake does not transmit any data on the plane's altitude, airspeed or other information that might help in locating it, the official said. Instead, searchers are trying to use the handshakes to triangulate the general area of where the plane last was known to have been at the last satellite check, the official said.

"It is telling us the airplane was continuing to operate," the official said, plus enough information on location so that the satellite will know how many degrees to turn to adjust its antenna to pick up any messages from the plane.

The official confirmed prior reports that following the loss of contact with the plane's transponder, the plane turned west. A transponder emits signals that are picked up by radar providing a unique identifier for each plane along with altitude. Malaysian military radar continued to pick up the plane as a whole "paintskin" — a radar blip that has no unique identifier — until it traveled beyond the reach of radar, which is about 320 kilometers (200 miles) offshore, the official said.

The New York Times, quoting American officials and others familiar with the investigation, said radar signals recorded by the Malaysian military appear to show the airliner climbing to 45,000 feet (about 13,700 meters), higher than a Boeing 777's approved limit, soon after it disappeared from civilian radar, and making a sharp turn to the west. The radar track then shows the plane descending unevenly to an altitude of 23,000 feet (7,000 meters), below normal cruising levels, before rising again and flying northwest over the Strait of Malacca toward the Indian Ocean, the Times reported.

[5555]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/us-malaysia-airlines-radar-exclusive-idUSBREA2D0DG20140314?view=small

[Happy_TheOne]

Acho que um fanatico de Lost tentou fazer o mesmo 

[5555]

New Evidence May Indicate Struggle in the Cockpit of Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

ABC News Videos March 15, 2014, 9:58 am

Was there a deliberate act that caused the plane to plummet 40,000 feet in less than a minute ?

Video: http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/21992922/new-evidence-may-indicate-struggle-in-the-cockpit-of-missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370/

[5555]

Indian Ocean poses daunting challenge in search for missing Malaysia plane



Missing Malaysia Airlines search focusing on two possible paths

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The southern Indian Ocean, where investigators suspect missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may have come down, is one place where a commercial airliner can crash without a ship spotting it, a radar plotting it or even a satellite picking it up.

The empty expanse of water is one of the most remote places in the world and also one of the deepest, posing potentially enormous challenges for the international search effort now refocusing on the area, one of several possible crash sites.

Even Australia, which has island territories in the Indian Ocean and sends rescue planes to pluck stricken yachtsmen from the cold, mountainous seas in the south from time to time, has no radar coverage much beyond its Indian Ocean coast.

"In most of Western Australia and almost all of the Indian Ocean, there is almost no radar coverage," an Australian civil aviation authority source said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak on the record.

"If anything is more than 100 kilometres offshore, you don't see it."

The Indian Ocean, the world's third largest, has an average depth of more than 12,000 feet, or two miles. That's deeper than the Atlantic where it took two years to find wreckage on the seabed from an Air France plane that vanished in 2009 even though floating debris quickly pointed to the crash site.

So far, search operations by navies and aircraft from more than a dozen nations have failed to find even a trace of Flight MH370, which went missing a week ago after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing and diverting from its intended flight path.

The search effort has focused mainly on the South China Sea but is now switching to the Indian Ocean after investigators, having pieced together radar and satellite tracking data, began to suspect the Boeing 777-200ER had been deliberately flown hundreds or possibly thousands of miles off course.

Searchers still face a daunting array of possible last locations for the plane, including the northern end of the Indian Ocean as well as central Asia, though investigators say it is more likely to have flown to the south than through busier airspace to the north where it would likely have been detected.

With an estimated four hours fuel left when last spotted by radar off Malaysia's northwest coast, the plane could have flown a further 2,200 miles (3,500 km) or so, assuming normal cruising speed and altitude.

Officials think, based on the available data, the aircraft flew south until it ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea, according to a source familiar with data the U.S. government is receiving from the investigation.

In the south, any debris from MH370 would have been widely dispersed by Indian Ocean currents in the week since it disappeared.

SCATTERING OF ISLANDS

The southern Indian Ocean, between Indonesia and Australia, is broken up only by the Australian territories of Christmas Island, home to asylum seeker detention facilities, and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands some 2,000 km (1,240 miles) northwest of Perth. The Cocos Islands have a small airport to serve the islands' combined population of just 3,000 people.

Further south, the only habitation is the handful of research stations on the scattering of tiny French-run islands including Kerguelen - a group of volcanic outcrops between Africa, Australia and Antarctica. While home to several powerful astronomical scanners and radar, there is no airport and it is seen extremely unlikely the aircraft could have made it that far.

The shipping route from Western Australia north to Asia and Europe is considered relatively quiet in global shipping terms, despite the large amount of iron ore and other resources that are shipped from Australia's northwest ports.

Ships track north staying close in to the West Australian coastline and then head north through Indonesian waters into the South China Sea or northwest toward the Red Sea.

Australia's civil aviation radar extends a maximum of just 200 nautical miles (410 km) off the coast, the civil aviation authority source said, and was used only for monitoring scheduled aircraft on approach into the country and subsequent landings.

There are just two primary radars on the west Australian coast, one in Perth and one further north in Paraburdoo, which has even less range and is used to monitor mining traffic heading to the nearby Pilbara region.

Australia's Civil Aviation Authority relies on aircraft ADSB (automatic dependent surveillance broadcast) to ping information to commercial satellites, such as telecoms firm Optus' four telecommunications satellites, and back to ground control.

The source said that this was the case with flights by Emirates Airlines, which all fly over the Indian Ocean to Australia, but it did not provide a specific radar plot.

Australia does not have any government satellites.

The Australian military has an over-the-horizon radar network that allows it to observe all air and sea activity north of Australia for up to 3,000 km (1,860 miles). This encompasses all of Java, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

While the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) extends part-way across the northern Indian Ocean, government papers online describe it as a "tripwire" in Australia's northern surveillance system, helping underpin the defense of the country from any attack originating from the north.

Local media have said its main use recently has been to track illegal immigrants approaching Australia by boat through the region's largely unguarded northern waters.

The Australian Defence Force was not available for comment on Sunday.

A potential crash site around 1,600 km (1,000 miles) northwest or west of the Australian coast would be well within the search and rescue area of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), one of the largest in the world.

An AMSA spokesman said no request for assistance had been received from Malaysia as of Sunday.

Video:http://news.yahoo.com/video/missing-malaysia-flight-mh370-timeline-124004921.html

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Mystery of Missing Malaysia Flight 370 Focuses off Austrália

Video: http://news.yahoo.com/video/mystery-missing-malaysia-flight-370-010556641.html

Hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 widens to Australia.