MH370 crash zone possibly never searched
Updated: 2014-06-17 14:05
(Xinhua)
|
|||||||||
|
Families pray as missing flight marks 100th day |
The British company said the original "hot spot" was based on its hourly electronic connections between the jet and one of its spacecraft before it crashed.
Inmarsat says it gave search authorities these coordinates, but the search crews never reached this hot-spot area because they were distracted for two months by "pings" that were later found to be a dead end.
"It was by no means an unrealistic location (where they were searching), but it was further to the northeast than our area of highest probability," Chris Ashton at Inmarsat told BBC's Horizon TV program.
To determine the hot spot, Inmarsat scientists used their data to draw a series of arcs across the Indian Ocean where its systems made contact with the jet.
Through flight modeling, they found one flight path that lined up with all its data.
"We can identify a path that matches exactly with all those frequency measurements and with the timing measurements and lands on the final arc at a particular location, which then gives us a sort of a hotspot area on the final arc where we believe the most likely area is," Ashton said.
The search for MH370 has stopped while ships map the Indian Ocean floor.
MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew, disappeared on March 8 after leaving Kuala Lumpur on a flight to Beijing.
- Delta launches nonstop Seattle-Hong Kong flight
- Consul general welcomed
- Developer of Alibaba film in talks for US TV screening
- Opera explores death of a Chinese-American soldier
- Popular Chinese TV show expands auditions to US
- World Cup fever grips Chinese soccer fans
- Tender moments of world leaders with their children
- Chinese fleet joins others for RIMPAC exercise
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
Crackdown on terrorist attacks |
My China Story: Meeting the master |
Tongues tied around tatu-bola |
A market that's not such a hot property |
Tough regime cranks out test winners |
Some lab animals get reprieve from testing |
Today's Top News
China lowers US debt for third straight month
China's Alibaba submits updated prospectus
Turmoil in Iraq 'certain to affect China oil prices'
US Navy ship with 550 Marines entering Gulf
US should 'attune itself to China's rise'
China blasts comments on S China Sea controversy
US hay helping China's dairy needs
Straits ties to expand despite pact suspension
US Weekly
Geared to go |
The place to be |