AFP
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The desperate search for a Malaysian jet that vanished with 239 people aboard was significantly expanded yesterday with frustrations mounting over the failure to find any trace of the plane.
The initial zone spread over a 92km radius around the point where Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared over the South China Sea in the early hours of Saturday morning, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Malaysian authorities announced they were doubling the size of the search area to 100 nautical miles.
“The area of search has been expanded in the South China Sea,” Civil Aviation Department chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman told reporters.
He also confirmed the area now covers land on the Malaysian peninsula itself, the waters off its west coast and an area to the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The vast stretch under consideration reflects authorities’ bafflement over the disappearance of the aircraft, with 40 ships and more than 30 planes finding no sign of it.
Emotions were running high as Beijing blamed Kuala Lumpur for a lack of information, while tearful relatives of the 153 Chinese passengers aboard voiced frustration with all sides of the response effort.
China said Malaysia needed to “step up” its efforts after authorities admitted they were mystified.
“The Malaysian side cannot shirk its responsibilities,” the Global Times newspaper, which is close to the ruling Communist Party, wrote in a scathing editorial. “The initial response from Malaysia was not swift enough.”
A day of conflicting information deepened the anguish of relatives, with tests on oil slicks in the South China Sea showing they were not from the Boeing 777 and reports of possible debris from the flight proving to be false alarms.
Hong Kong’s Civil Aviation Department said that a pilot on a flight from the southern Chinese city to Kuala Lumpur had reported seeing “large debris” while flying over Vietnamese waters in the latest sighting to be investigated.
Malaysia has launched a terror probe after at least two of the passengers were found to have travelled on stolen passports.