25 countries involved in plane search

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia said on Sunday, March 16, the number of countries involved in efforts to find a missing passenger jet had nearly doubled to 25 as it began a new push to find the plane across a vast arc of land and ocean.

“The number of countries involved in the search and rescue operation has increased from 14 to 25, which brings new challenges of coordination and diplomacy to the search effort,” said Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia’s defense and transport minister.

The transport ministry said police searched the pilots’ homes on Saturday, March 15, and were examining the captain’s home flight simulator but cautioned the public “not to jump to conclusions.” (READ: MH370 pilots: Engineering buff, a good boy)

In line with “normal procedure,” police were probing all the missing plane’s 239 passengers and crew, as well as engineers who may have had contact with the aircraft before take-off, the ministry said in a statement.

The police action followed Saturday’s startling revelations that the plane’s communications systems had been manually switched off before the jet veered westward and flew on for hours.

Briefing the press, Prime Minister Najib Razak declined to use the word hijack but said the new data suggested “deliberate action” by someone on board – raising more perplexing and deeply troubling questions about the plane’s fate.

“Who? Why? Where?” was the front page headline of the Malaysian government-controlled New Straits Times. – Rappler.com